On Writing Well By William Zinsser

Decent Essays
The nonfiction book On Writing Well by William Zinsser is about nothing more than what the title itself implies it to be. The book is divided into four parts: “principles,” “methods,” “forms,” and “attitudes.” The first part is about how to write with simplicity so that the reader will understand by removing unnecessary words and putting the right ones with the right meaning for what is trying to be said. Overall, doing so without having to completely take away the parts that give style to our writing. The second part is about the structure of writing; Zinsser gives helpful information on how writing should begin and how it should end. He says “the most important sentence in any article is the first one” (54). He says that a piece of important

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Throughout these sections, Hacker and Sommers explain how to construct a successful piece of writing and help demonstrate the writing process. In this book, Hacker and Sommers first focus on the planning aspect needed before writing an essay in order…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Thoroughly reading writing related to what you are working on will help you to write with stronger technique. This will also give you a sense of direction and prevent you from feeling stressed or lost when writing your…

    • 1395 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What does good mean? Am I good? Are you good? Can we even be what is known as good? The word good is such a relative term especially in terms of writing.…

    • 359 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In chapter one of “The Curious Writer” by Bruce Ballenger, I felt that the chapter was heavily impacted on how to write a well written essay in many forms. I believe that in the beginning of the chapter the author was stating that the two reasons for a person is interaction and critical thinking. I agree with the author because I feel that these are key elements that are extremely essential in a well developed essay that usually I tend to forget to put in when I am whether it's a timed essay, research paper, argumentative paper or response to literature. I really appreciate author explaining the “do’s and don'ts” of writing a paper. For example, in my experience I usually hold my opinions back when I am writing papers opinions…

    • 183 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    My Strengths As A Writer

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages

    As a writer one of the strengths I find, is the ability to know how to word things. Although, sometimes my work doesn’t always sound good, it does when I take the time and apply myself. A challenge I face in writing includes, introductions, and conclusions, also being able to write a lot about something. I did however, learn how to properly write an intro and conclusion in this course.…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a good writer builds up own firm style of writing by chopping off the unwanted contents, simplifying and maintaining the transaction, the most important matter now is to determine who is he writing for? And the answer is not for a big mass of audience or the editors who will be publishing it, but himself (Zinsser,24). It is very uneasy for a writer to be himself, carefree about the opinions of others because one does not want to lose the readers. But the writer assures that these are two different problems to deal with. One associates with the style of writing while the other is having belief in our own work.…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Good writing is focused, purposeful, and clear. To produce it, it is necessary to have a good backbone of prior knowledge and a reflective approach. In order to create a piece that is compelling, writing needs to be focused and flow well. Good writing has a point, a goal that it is intended to achieve.…

    • 1883 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    But now I know that if you write like you care, the reader will have no choice but to feel the same. I have learned to set the tone in my writing by thoroughly researching and making my position clear. I have also learned the importance of planning. Countless teachers have told me that my writing feels rushed and sometimes my ideas aren’t clear. Spelman professors have taught me to find planning methods that best fit me.…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Kurt Vonnegut’s article, he explains why you should examine your writing style with the idea of improving it. In order to do so, Vonnegut suggest the following seven step process: 1. Finding a subject that you care about, 2. Do not ramble, 3. Keeping it simple, 4.…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Shivam 1 Shivam Gupta Professor Keith MacDonald Composition 1 20 October 2017 Read Like a Writer In Mike Bunn’s “How to Read Like a Writer” he explains how one can become a better reader simply by trying to understand the article from the point of view of the writer, by analyzing every word, sentence or paragraph with one question in mind, "what effect did the writer intend to have with these words?". I believe it is important for us to have this skill because it gives us a better insight into what we are reading, it helps us understand on a deeper level exactly what the article is trying to tell us and in response, this teaches us better techniques and skills to become better writers. Using guidelines set by Bunn in his article, I will illustrate…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Reflection: I learned from Ziesmer was how to focus on my tone. How you can work your tone to give the paper its true meaning. I wrote multiple drafts on this paper. I took many different approaches until a found a way to tell a story in a way that was meaningful without being boring. I usually just write one draft and then revise it and turn it in, I never have had to do multiple drafts so that was something different for me.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I feel that writing is a good subject to be familiar and practicing in frequently, it is a necessary tool to communicate properly. Although, if I were to be truthful I’d have to say that I am not the biggest fan of it due to the fact that it bores me and I have trouble figuring out what to say. So I find it hard to enjoy writing because most of the time I am just struggling to concentrate because I don’t have much more to say about a topic. Recently, since I have not been in school for a while, I have found myself forgetting rules to the English language in my everyday speech so I find it to be useful. This has influenced how I feel about writing because the more I write, the more easily I can remember to use these rules in my daily…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I understand the importance of proof reading, researching, editing and composing my writing to create a higher quality than before I commenced this course. Effective writing is being aware of the value of taking an audience into consideration, as a writer I have learnt the importance of staying on target with your chosen audience. I found once I became personally motivated to write and pushed all doubts aside the words began to flow onto the paper. “Whatever the teaching, the writers are on their own, drawing on their experience of life, of language and of story to make meaning. Writing their story is an act of self-expression and self-validation.…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As I think about my experiences throughout the semester of English 101, I have realized that I have learned some very important requirements that are important to help improve my writing. “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything (George Bernard Shaw).” During this course, reading and comprehending the materials given was not only a tough task for me but it was also demanding. I was challenged to change my thought process on what it was to be a good writer. The concept of understanding the value of correctly communicating thoughts differs from learning to apply the techniques needed to communicate successfully.…

    • 1486 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The thesis statement is a very, very important part of the essay. In their book entitled, Writing: A College Handbook" James Heffernan, John Lincoln, and Janet Atwill clearly explains the following: "A statement of thesis answers your exploratory question and expresses the main point of your essay my making a precise, specific assertion about the topic. A thesis statement expresses your unique insight or way of explaining a subject and often forecasts how you will develop and organize your text." A good thesis statement will lead right into the introduction. "The introduction comes first for the reader, but not necessarily first for the writer.…

    • 707 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays