On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction |
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| Title: | On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction |
| Author: | William Zinsser |
| Publisher: | Harper Paperbacks |
| Type: | Book / Paperback |
| Publication Date: | 01 May, 2006 |
| ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0060891548 / 9780060891541 |
| List Price: | $14.99 |
| You Save: | $4.80 |
| Amazon Price: | $10.19 |
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This book is also available, brand-new, from 3rd-party marketplace sellers at Amazon.com, from $7.50.
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Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
On Writing Well has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sole, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.
Amazon.com Review
Whether you write an occasional professional letter or a daily newspaper column, William Zinsser's On Writing Well should be required reading. Simplicity is Zinsser's mantra: he preaches a stripped-down writing style, strong and clear. He has no patience for excess (most use of adjectives and adverbs, he writes, just adds clutter) or tired phraseology (for instance, he'd like to outlaw all leads involving those "future archaeologists" most often found "stumbl[ing] upon the remains of our civilization"). He recommends that all writers of nonfiction read their work aloud (don't commit something to paper that you wouldn't actually say) and write under the assumption that "the reader knows nothing" (not to be confused with assuming the reader's an idiot). In addition to the chapters on the expected--usage, audience, interviews, leads--Zinsser also focuses on such trouble spots as science and technical writing, business writing, sports, and humor.
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Customer Reviews:
• Tremendous Asset In Classroom!
06 December, 2009
A friend had loaned me a copy of On Writing Well, thinking I'd enjoy reading it. I loved it so much I immediately bought a copy for myself. The seniors in my classroom who are writing research papers are constantly hearing comments about writing clearly, made as I cover each chapter in the book.
A fabulous reference for language arts classrooms!
- Amazon Customer Review
• A Gem!!!-book Assigned By A College Professor Fall 2009
25 December, 2009
The author does a brilliant job walking the reader through a series of writing techniques and methods. Nothing is missed as he discusses the various genres Sports, Humor, Science and Technology, Memoirs, interviews, nonfiction, and more.
I appreciated the chapter on Unity, The Sound of Your Voice, The Tyranny of the Final Product, and Write as Well as You Can.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Amusing Potboiler
20 November, 2009
Learn to eliminate excess verbiage, and continue learning the English language and other topics also.
There, I have saved you the price of this book. As others have pointed out, the writer is a coach or cheerleader and as such may be quite effective. However, I got the impression he was a bit of a hack himself, in a position for many years such that he was paid whether he wrote well or badly. I suspect those days are gone.
I lost most of my confidence in him gradually except when he began to enthuse about his "Webster's Dictionary" which I know as a generic term, i.e., nearly useless. There is no "Webster's" company, it has become a generic term for a large number of INFERIOR dictionaries. It is bad advice, and that is when I lost the big chunk of any remaining confidence in the value of his book.
Much of it would be useful, in lieu of any other instruction, for a high school student or college freshman. There are better books to recommend, however.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Written With Warmth And Humanity
30 December, 2009
"Few people realize how badly they write," says William Zinsser. But there's hope. Writing, he says, is a craft that can be learned by anyone who is willing to work at it. We should remember something about the man or woman who, in our mind, sits down at the keyboard and types out the perfect piece on the first go: that person doesn't exist.
"Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard."
Zinsser's section on the principles of writing sounds like Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. Simplicity is the highest virtue--"The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components." On the other hand, "clutter is the disease of American writing."
Clarity, simplicity, brevity, and humanity are Zinsser's "four articles of faith." He says that any piece of non-fiction writing can be enjoyable if it is written with "warmth and humanity." And he proves his point. On Writing Well is full of stories about real people. I enjoy reading it as much as any novel. I read half of it in the bookstore before I bought it, and I have read it several times since then.
Zinsser doesn't just talk about principles, grammar, and style. His book has chapters on nearly every genre of non-fiction writing: interviews, travel articles, memoir, business writing, science and technology, sports writing, reviewing, and humor. There's something for everyone.
I do realize how badly I write. For that reason, I read every book on writing that I can find. Few have been as helpful as On Writing Well. None have been as enjoyable to read.
Zinsser is qualified to tell us how to write. He has written books on subjects from baseball to jazz, including this book that has sold over one million copies and is in its seventh printing. Mr. Zinsser has also taught writing at Yale and Columbia University.
We get a glimpse of Zinsser's political views in places. Though they are different than mine, it doesn't change the way I feel about the book. Unlike some books on writing, this one is not trying to persuade the reader politically or morally. Zinsser's goal is to make better writers. What if we hear his likes and dislikes? After all, he's a real person writing with warmth and humanity.
If you want a book that will help you become a better non-fiction writer, this is the one.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Simple And Useful
07 January, 2010
A well written book (could it be different?) that you can pleasantly read despite of the "tedious" topic
- Amazon Customer Review
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