Summary Of On Writing Well

Writing is a process and one must read, apply, and practice it over time. Writing is all around us, in papers, textbooks and social media, just brushing the surface of the plethora of text out there. We must learn to adapt but also use and develop good writing skills that will allow us to portray a concise message. Zinsser gives a lot of advice in his book, On Writing Well, to the new writer, the experienced writer, and everybody else who uses writing in their professions or personal life. It is a book about fundamental principles as well as the insights that he learned from being a distinguished writer and teacher. He uses quirky, witty, and wise words to get his point across in the book which makes it memorable to the reader. His advice on clutter in Chapter 3 resonates to me and THESIS reminds me of college essay, and helps me reflect on how i clutter my sentences and how .. applied it, and able to understand/reflect it further
It is more effective to get to the point quickly with less words that are more succinct than others. It can be harder to read, more boring, or make you sound less educated. Zinsser writes, “fighting clutter is like fighting weeds” (13). It is common and happens because we are so used to writing in such a way, quickly and not editing it further. We think longer means better and tend to ramble on like we do in our speech, he writes “long words are no better than the short words” (16). I have struggled with this, always using more words, phrases, and garble in my writing. But, this reading struck me because it teaches us about simplicity and meaning. It reminded me of high school english when we began drafting college essays which was a lesson about