Name: Bouke van der Bijl's review of On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Item: On Writing Well
Rating: 4
Author: Bouke van der Bijl

William Zinsser

In addition to exploring the techniques of nonfiction writing, Zinsser discusses sexism in writing, jargon, and psychological writing blocks.

An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction

On Writing Well

Vince Nguyen

Bouke van der Bijl

Writing is very important, because it’s how I bring across ideas and opinions. I also consider writing well to be hard. Without paying attention you can write a lot of text without conveying your initial thought. The worst writing is done in a business context, where process performance optimizations are scheduled to integrate external requirements. A business context is also where good writing can be most impactful. If you write an email that gets sent to 500 people, you better make sure it is easy to read and gets your message across. What else would be the point? Otherwise you waste 500 people’s time. 

This book is a good overview of writing principles you should follow to make your writing better. I enjoyed the chapters that go into applying the principles to specific topics, although I skipped over the ones that are not relevant to me–sportswriting for example. I am surprised by how well-updated this book has been over the past 40 years, although I am interested in a book like this that is written by a writer from a newer generation.

Vince Nguyen &
On Writing Well by William Zinsser

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Vince Nguyen &On Writing Well by William Zinsser

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Join the club

Vince Nguyen &
On Writing Well by William Zinsser