On Writing Well William Zinsser Analysis

William Zinsser said in his book, “On Writing Well”, that there is no great audience to write for; instead authors should write for themselves, for expressing their own emotions, passions, and desires. While this is true to some degree, writers should still keep an audience in mind when writing, especially if that writing is meant to be read by the public. Master the precise skill of writing, then use that skill to express one’s personality to the world through the words on the paper. Some authors believe that working with the usual tone, and developing a style that offers glimpses into the author’s soul, is the best way to write. Other authors believe that keeping writing formal while still engaging the attention of the reader is the best way to spread their work to the world. Both of these views are right, but are styled for different audiences. Integrating carefully structured paragraphs, correct grammar, tactical
Diction is the word choice itself, where syntax deals more with the overall word and sentence placement in a paragraph. To have correct diction, one should be aware of the concepts of denotation and annotation. Strunk and White’s Handbook informs that the denotation of a word is its exact, literal meaning found in a reliable dictionary. The three types of denotation are unabridged; extensive background and research on the word, abridged; only holds the most commonly used words, and specialized; only focuses on a certain area such as an English-to-Spanish dictionary or a slang dictionary. Connotation deals with the ideas associated with a word, or in other words, a thesaurus. However, one must be cautious when dealing with thesauruses, for while the words have similar meanings, it doesn’t mean that they are interchangeable and if used incorrectly, can put an unexpected and often unwanted twist on the tone of a