On Writing Well, 25th Anniversary: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction [Paperback]

Like Sol Stein's "On Writing," Zinsser crafted his book to help writers at any level to become stronger writers. And he notes: "My purpose is not to teach good nonfiction or good journalism, but to teach good English that can be put to those uses, or to any uses. Don't assume that bad English can still be good journalism, or good business writing, or good technical writing, or good travel writing, or good sports writing. It can't. Good English is your passport to wherever you need to go in your writing, your work and your life. All the writers I've quoted in this book are vastly different in personality and style. But all of them write good English. You can, too" (Zinsser, xi).

Unlike Stein, Zinsser chooses to deal with just the subgenres of nonfiction. To this end, "On Writing Well" is separated into four distinct parts that allow writers to focus in on the distinct parts that interest them the most, as well as to make it easier for those who are revisiting the work. From finding ways to make your writing uniquely personal; to dealing with technicalities such as word choice, usage and unity; to the various forms of the nonfiction world, such as interviewing methods, the travel article, the memoir, science and technology articles, business, sports and arts writing; as well as the art of revising and overcoming the fear of writing, Zinsser illustrates all of his concepts with relevant examples and quotes from his own work as well as the work from other creative nonfiction authors. Zinsser's writing is always clear and as such even his most complex topics are easy to understand.

One final quote summarizes Zinsser very nicely, "...good wirting can appear anywhere, even in the lowly newspaper, and... what matters is the writing itself, not the medium where it's published. Therefore I've always tried to write as well as I could by my own standards; I've never changed my style to fit the size or presumed education of the audience I was writing for... Besides wanting to write as well as possible, I wanted to write as entertainingly as possible. When I tell aspiring that they should think of themselves as part entertainer, they don't like to hear it - the word smacks of carnivals and jugglers and clowns. But to succeed you must make your piece jump out of a newspaper or a magazine by being more diverting than everyone else's piece. You must find some way to elevate your act of writing into an entertainment" (288).

And even though my own personal writing isn't always entertaining, I know it's improving. I also know that my writing will take a huge leap forward having immersed myself in William Zinsser's "On Writing Well." In short, it's an essential guide to the art and craft of writing creative nonfiction.

Grade: A

Zinsser patiently instructs his readers on how to write about travel or science, how to conduct an interview, how to craft an effective lead and ending, and even how to get started. Along the way, Zinsser entreats us to omit clutter and cliché, strike out useless adverbs, adjectives, and qualifiers, incorporate active verbs, and strive for correct usage as well as unity of pronoun, tense, and mood. But the overriding messages are clarity, simplicity, and directness. Keep it crisp. Oh, and just like driving a car, always signal your intentions (keep that "but" at the beginning of the sentence).

Two specific pages in Zinsser's book have remained etched in my mind from the moment I took them in almost two decades ago. They comprise the most genuine and revealing demonstration I have ever seen in a book on writing. On those two pages (pages 10 and 11 in the first edition), Zinsser provides a glimpse at the penultimate draft of the very book you are reading, juxtaposed with the corresponding pages in final form; in so doing, Zinsser invites you to critically examine his own writing, while revealing something of his process. This was brilliant. Those few pages (penultimate draft plus final draft) are alone worth the price of the book.

The lessons in this comparison are profound: First, Zinsser himself practices what he professes, but more importantly, even he is prone to inflate sentences with useless verbiage. What Zinsser has beautifully illustrated is how his writing came to be so tight. It did not spring from his mind to paper in the form we see; rather, it was gradually shaped through repeated editing, much of it with the aim of removing unnecessary words. (One could say that he is more like Beethoven, who endlessly rewrote, rather than Mozart, who composed finished works in one stroke.) I immediately adopted this practice and to this day I devote several final editing passes to the removal of useless words. I can think of no other lesson that I have learned in my 22 years of formal education that has been so enduring and consistently useful.

In the past decade I have recommended this book to each of my graduate students, and nearly all of my colleagues; at times I have simply purchased a copy and presented it to them. Of course, such a gesture can be taken the wrong way. It needn't imply that one's writing is in desperate need of repair, but rather that the content is worthy of concise expression. It was in the latter spirit that I shared Zinsser's book with my students and colleagues, and I believe all have gained from it.

Do yourself a life-long favor and read this wonderful book. It won't take long, yet its lessons might forever change the way you write. Your readers will benefit, and you will benefit.

I found Part I and II of the book to be too simplistic and bland. Zinsser spends more time describing and discussing grammar than actually demonstrating and explaining. There are no examples of grammar just descriptions of how to use it. Perhaps, Zinsser wanted to place more emphasis on writing than grammar in the book. It is not until Part III-Forms that Zinsser addresses how to write about a specific topic. He discusses writing topics such as nonfiction, interviews, travel, memoirs, business, sports, arts and humor. I found this to be the most helpful section of the book. Part IV-Attitudes describes the role and importance of writing style and decisions in writing.

If you are looking for a book that teaches grammar or is a reference guide for grammar, this is not it. This book is a reference guide for writers. If you want to learn more about writing particular types of articles or books, refer to Part III-Forms.