On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

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Look for the clutter in your writing and prune it ruthlessly. Reexamine each sentence you put on paper. Is every word doing new work? Can any thought be expressed with more economy? Is anything pompous or pretentious or faddish? Are you hanging on to something useless just because you think it’s beautiful? Simplify, simplify. Style A writer never has a vacation. For a writer life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.” — Eugene Ionesco Learning how to organize a long article is just as important as learning how to write a clear and pleasing sentence.

Zinsser's overarching advice for writers in On Writing Well is to be economical in their writing, to be honest with themselves, and to be courteous to their audience by writing pieces that have a lot of thought behind them. While I eventually did learn some of the secrets of good writing, it would have been a lot e asier if I’d had a book like William Zinsser’s On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction to teach me the right skills to practice. With this book in your toolkit, you’ll become a great writer much faster than you think is possible!Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.” — Stephen King You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” — Madeleine L'Engle Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.” — William S. Burroughs

Every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn’t have before.Your style will be warmer and truer to your personality if you use contractions like “I’ll” and “won’t” and “can’t” when they fit comfortably into what you’re writing