William Zinsser

On Writing Well has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet. Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sole, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.

An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction

On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition

Ivy Chen

Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual-it catches the eve before it has a chance to catch the brain. 

One of the richest travel books written by an American is Walden, though Thoreau only went a mile out of town. Finally, however, what brings a place alive is human activity: people doing the things that give a locale its character. 

Dhrumil Patel

Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.

“Who am I writing for?" It's a fundamental question, and it has a fundamental answer: You are writing for yourself. Don't try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience-every reader is a different person.

You must choose the tense in which you are principally going to address the reader, no matter how many glances you may take backward or forward along the way.

The act of writing generates some cluster of thoughts or memories that you didn't anticipate. Don't fight such a current if it feels right. Trust your material if it's taking you into terrain you didn't intend to enter but where the vibrations are good. Adjust your style accordingly and proceed to whatever destination you reach. Don't become the prisoner of a preconceived plan. Writing is no respecter of blueprints.

Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual — it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain. Short paragraphs put air around what you write and make it look inviting, whereas a long chunk of type can discourage a reader from even starting to read.

On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition quotes

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