On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Good writing comes down to an uncomfortable truth: a muddled sentence is a sign of muddled thinking. William Zinsser’s whole approach to nonfiction follows from it. The cure isn’t a bigger vocabulary or a bag of clever techniques — it’s deciding exactly what you mean and cutting every word that isn’t doing work. Most writers fail because they try to impress instead of communicate, reaching for complicated language when plain words would land harder. The result exhausts readers rather than informing them.

William Zinsser on SummaryShelf

On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction