On Writing Well, The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, 6e (2001)

322 Pages·2007·4.53 MB·English

by  William Zinsser

On
Writing
Well
BOOKS BY WILLIAM ZINSSER
Any Old Place With You
Seen Any Good Movies Lately?
The City Dwellers
Weekend Guests
The Haircurl Papers
Pop Goes America
The Paradise Bit
The Lunacy Boom
On Writing Well
Writing With a Word Processor
Willie and Dwike
(republished as Mitchell and Ruff)
Writing to Learn
Spring Training
American Places
Speaking of Journalism
Easy to Remember
AUDIO BOOKS BY WILLIAM ZINSSER
On Writing Well
How to Write a Memoir
BOOKS EDITED BY WILLIAM ZINSSER
Extraordinary lives: The Art and Craft of American Biography
Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir
Spiritual Quests: The Art and Craft of Religious Writing
Paths of Resistance: The Art and Craft of the Political Novel
Worlds of Childhood: The Art and Craft of Writing for Children
They Went: The Art and Craft of Travel Writing
Going on Faith: Writing as a Spiritual Quest
On
Writing
Well
cssao
THE CLASSIC GUIDE TO
WRITING NONFICTION
25th Anniversary Edition
William Zinsser
Quill
A HarperResource Book
An Imprint of HzrperCollinsPublishers
ON WRITING WELL. Sixth Edition, revised and updated. Copyright © 1976, 1980,
1985, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2001 by William K. Zinsser. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or re-
produced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information ad-
dress HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.
HarperCollins books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promo-
tional use. For information, please write to: Special Markets Department, Harper-
Collins Publishers, Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.
Designed by Alma Orenstein.
First HarperResource Quill edition published 2001.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zinsser, William Knowlton.
On writing well : the classic guide to writing nonfiction / William Zinsser. —
25th anniversary ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-06-000664-1
1. English language—Rhetoric. 2 . Exposition (Rhetoric) 3. Report writing.
I. Title.
PE1429 .Z5 2001
808'.042—dc21 2001041623
ISBN 0-06-000664-1 (pbk.)
02 03 04 05 •/RRD 109 8 7 65 4
C O N T E N T S
osso
INTRODUCTION ix
PART I Principles
The Transaction 3
1
Simplicity 7
2
3 Clutter 13
4 Style 18
5 The Audience 25
6 Words 33
7 Usage 38
PART II Methods
8 Unity 49
9 The Lead and the Ending 55
Bits & Pieces 68
10
PART ill Forms
Nonfiction as Literature 95
11
Writing About People: The Interview
12 100
Writing About Places: The Travel Article
13 116
14 Writing About Yourself: The Memoir 133
15 Science and Technology 148
16 Business Writing: Writing in Your Job 166
17 Sports 179
18 Writing About the Arts: Critics and Columnists 194
Humor
19 208
viii CONTENTS
PART IV Attitudes
20 The Sound of Your Voice 233
2 1 Enjoyment, Fear and Confidence 243
22 The Tyranny of the Final Product 255
23 A Writer s Decisions 265
24 Write as Wel as You Can 286
SOURCES 295
INDEX 301