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