I came upon On Writing Well by William Zinsser early in my writing career but only read it recently. It is mostly a guide to writing nonfiction but was also recommended for people who wrote fiction. Books about writing are intimidating sometimes but I thought I'd give this one a try.
On Writing Well is one of the best books I have ever read. I know I must have said the same thing about a number of books in the past, but Zinsser writes in style. Not only is his book informative, but it is also flowing nicely and smoothly. I have never read anything that felt as if I wasn't reading at all. And this makes it even more intimidating to do a written review about, because, well, let's be honest, no one can write that well.
The key takeaway from On Writing Well is that writing should not lack the human element, which is what gives text its life (of course there's more to it, this is just one of the takeaways).
I always wondered why academic writing felt so estranged and awkward and now I know it's because it is. Zinsser has opened my eyes in a way that what has been seen cannot be unseen.
I'd like to believe this book made me a better writer, but I'm afraid it made me an even harsher critical reader. Ever since I read this book, I can hardly read scientific papers anymore with those unnecessarily long, third-person sentences in the passive voice. Reading anything scientific that wasn't written by a native speaker who is also an author and knows how to write well has become a nightmare. I cringe when I see something like, "the project aims at..." or "graphs were created..."
The project cannot aim, and graphs cannot create themselves. They do not have a will of their own. It is the team behind the project that aims and creates the graphs.
But that's just one of the things that stayed with me after reading this book.
On Writing Well may primarily focus on non-fiction, but contains knowledge that would prove useful to anyone who writes in English. Even if that's just emails at work. And it is definitely a must-read for those whose work relates to writing: students, teachers, businessmen, reporters, and of course, writers.
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