A Review of The Book Writing Well by William Zinsser

On Writing Well By William Zinsser

When looking through this book, I realized it was more of guideline than anything else. Just the titles of each chapter give away its core lessons like simplicity, clutter, and humor. For a long time I was hesitant on whether I learned enough in journalism 1 and if I was ready for newspaper, and I hoped this book would help smooth out some of my fears. I know how to write, but sometimes questions like, "am I being clear enough," or "how do I make this a little more sassy without being too wordy" run through my mind and I wanted some insights and help. I was hoping this book would give me a simple outline for what I needed to do in order to be a good journalist and how to help me connect to my readers.

This book gives journalists in training and even those who have been writing for years a fresh perspective on how they should think about a story. I think Zinsser's point wasn't just to improve people's everyday writing, but to change their mentality about it. Reading this book should change the way a person thinks about how to write, from how to connect with the reader to how to clean out the unnecessary garbage. Reading this can and should help us be better journalists if we actually learn from the lessons and listen to the advice overflowing every page.

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Excerpts

"I was especially grateful for the secret, shameful things about these women - the pain: the abortions and misalliances, the pills they took, the amount they drank...." (Page 146)

This excerpt is a great example of examples. This is a piece about a girl who finds comfort in reading about other women's pain, and instead of telling us that these women are struggling and going through a hard time in their life, we get to read about the actual things they're doing to express these emotions like drinking and taking pills. I think that that's what good writing needs to include: letting the reader know exactly what you mean. This is exemplifying "show, don't tell."

"The war has defied her and is the darling of the home front, feted at conference tables, praised in every smoking car, her girlish ways and curious habits the topic of many..." (Page 26)

Throughout the rest of this excerpt, the man is writing about his love for a chicken, a topic that most people including myself aren't interested in, but the writer used such good rhythm and style, and he was very simple yet descriptive. This excerpt uses adjectives, but every single one was necessary. This is a beautiful description because it shows how a writer can use style and adjectives with strong vocabulary as long as it is necessary and it flows.

"As teacher you become obsessed with an issue - I was the injured party, conferring, as usual, unheard of freedoms, and here they were as usual taking advantage." (Page 30)

A first hand source means it was directly from the original source, plain and simple. This excerpt is directly from a teacher describing how she feels about teaching in Egypt. It doesn't talk about how most teachers get caught up in their work; this information is coming from the teacher herself. This is a first hand source, meaning the feelings described are coming directly from the person feeling them (the teacher herself).

"Piston wanted mainly to paint, draw monsters, scratch designs on mimeograph blanks and print them up, write an occasional horror story... and when he didn't want to do any of those, he wanted to roam the halls..." (Page 29)

A second hand source means the information provided isn't directly from the source it is about, meaning it was given by another person. This is a good example of a secondhand source because a person is talking about a boy named Piston. All the information provided (that Piston likes to paint, draw...) didn't come directly from Piston; it came from the person talking about him. This can sometimes be tricky and unreliable, so a writer should always strive to get a first- hand source.

"Examine every word... You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose... the clutter is the enemy." (Page 12)

This perfectly describes what a journalist should do after writing a story. There are so many unnecessary words that we could and would find if we just really took apart our writing into bits and threw out all the garbage. Writing should be direct, and if a writer is going around the subject trying to explain it rather than going straight at it, then it should be fixed.

"But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components... clear thinking becomes clear writing." (Page 8)

In any story, especially in solid news reporting, a writer has a lot of things to keep in mind like being direct and not too wordy, but there is one thing that's most important: knowing what you're writing about. This explains that we have to make it clear to ourselves what we're writing about, and then strip the story clean until only the direct main idea of the story is left. There is no need for extra words and unnecessary descriptions if they don't support the slug of the story.

"Who am I writing for?" It's a fundamental question, and it has a fundamental answer: You are writing for yourself... You are who you are, he [the reader] is who he is, and either you'll get along or you won't." (Page 24)

This is important to keep in mind when you're writing a news story. You shouldn't center your writing on your reader and what style of writing they might prefer. Writing is personal and it is your own, which is what makes it unique. You should write for yourself and make sure that its natural because when you try to hard in your writing the reader notices. Let the story flow and hope the reader connects with YOUR style.

"You won't write well until you understand that writing is an evolving process, not a product." (Page 84)

This is one of the most important lessons in this book. Writing isn't striving to finish a story, it's striving to take a story and see where it leads you. While writing a story there will always be loops and turns and it might need to be changed, edited, added to, or whatever else. Writing a story is a journey in itself and a good writer knows to take that journey and make the best of it.

"You only have to remember that readers identify with people, not abstractions like 'profitability'." (Page 166)

A lot of writers make the mistake of thinking that big vocabulary will make

them sound sophisticated, making their writing better and therefore more interesting. These writers are sadly mistaken because, as Zinsser explains, people rarely use this high vocabulary in real life. People identify with people, not fancy language. To make the reader connect to you, you have to level out with them and make sure you are speaking their language.

In all, I think this book has taught me just how dedicated a successful journalist needs to be to their stories and how specific a story should get, but while giving all this information they can give a splash of color that is their personality as well. Any good writer should know exactly what they're trying to tell their readers before they get anywhere near typing up their story. Knowing what you want is the first step to going for it, and once you do that you need to make sure the reader knows exactly what you mean without the unnecessary high vocabulary and adjectives.

A journalist should strive to entertain and interest their reader, and so they slowly learn to use the right kind of adjectives and descriptions. These explanations should be relevant and necessary to the drive of the story. Zinsser has also taught me what I should keep in mind when I'm writing my story. I should have in in my brain that I am not writing for a reader, I am writing for myself. Letting ideas flow and seeing where a story takes you is extremely important, because a reader can sense when a writer is forcibly trying too hard.

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