On Writing Well: A Comprehensive Guide to Crafting Engaging Nonfiction

Make War: Overall the book has good writing advice but when I buy a book on how to write well I don’t want to see petty political attacks scattered throughout it. He just couldn’t help himself could he, had to attacks conservatives and republicans. I’m neither but it’s annoying af when people inject their political bs into things that have nothing to do with politics. I would say, grow up, but the dude’s been dirt for 8 years already.

United States on Nov 06, 2023

Wayne Robison: Condition of book was described accurately, competitive price, quick delivery.

United States on Oct 18, 2023

vipin: Good writing cannot be achieved unless the writer can organise his thoughts, first in his mind, then on paper. Even as I write this review, the lessons I learned in the chapters of On Writing Well are fresh in my mind. The book not only helped me develop the rigour and clarity in my writing, it also sparked a new enthusiasm to not just write, but write well.

William Zinsser tells with clear examples that clutter and clichés in writing are present everywhere, we read them so often that we’ve become numb, narrowing our sense of what a good piece of writing looks like. Then he elegantly shows what it looks like. Humour and optimism are “lubricants in writing”, it also requires “a good musical ear, a sense of rhythm and a feeling for words”, he says.

My favourite chapter of this book is A Writer’s Decision in which William Zinsser deconstructs one of his travel piece on Timbuktu, which had appeared in Condé Nast Traveller magazine. Leading up to that section, with my fresh pair of reading eyes and heightened reading senses, I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. That chapter summed it up for me, the experiences of Timbuktu lingered for several days...

United Kingdom on Sep 24, 2023

M Shaw: The book has some must needed profound yet simple insights on writing but yet ironically the author after making one of his core points of keeping it simple and stripping it all down to its basics he goes on and on and on and on and more and more worthiness that is unnecessary essentially doing the opposite of what he's telling you to do.

So my solution to this and why I still gave it four stars was to highlight the beginning of each chapter because that's where he seems to make his points and where the gems are located

I found highlighting one to three sentences at the beginning of each chapter to be the essence of the book so my take on it final thoughts excellent book worth the value but unless you know these points I'm making here you may lose yourself in the complexity of all the unnecessary wording and forget the key points.

United States on Jul 07, 2023

kiage: Spedizione arrivata in tempo, oggetto come da descrizione, libro ben scritto.

Italy on Mar 07, 2023

Mike Stimpson: As Zinsser says in Chapter 2, "good writing doesn't come naturally." Good writing requires good rewriting, and this book gives plenty of direction on how to rewrite right. It's not surprising but still worth noting that every chapter of this old classic, in its Seventh Edition, is a pleasure to read. It's easy to understand why OWW has sold more than a million copies.

Canada on Jan 04, 2023

Dennis: I bought this book because there is a dearth of material out there to authors who write nonfiction.

There is much great advice in this book. Such as: how using active verbs make your writing stronger, short sentences are great, using words with fewer syllables and many other points. I wrote down many great points the author had so I can review easily for future writing. It is obvious Zinsser knows what he is talking about. It also helped that I enjoyed his writing which I wondered what it would be like. He must have been very confident and accomplished to write a book on how to write well (I hadn’t heard of him prior to seeing this book).

Other than some politically correct mush about writing in “she” and “he” and one part about some nonsense about how special it was that a woman beat a man in a tennis match, I whole-heartedly recommend this to anyone that writes nonfiction. Not all of it pertained to me, but it will certainly be important to others. He tackles such things as clutter, the audience, words, usage, how to do an interview, unity, science and technology, how to write a beginning and an end and much more.

This was a quick review and I did...

Canada on Mar 08, 2020

Ms. KJ Rowberry: As you would expect this is very well written and gives clear guidance on how to improve your writing. It is litterd with fantastic examples and anecdotes to brighten up what can be a dry subject. It lacks some of the charm of Eats, shoots and leaves. but makes up for it in depth.

Having studied Journalism a decade ago I wish I'd had this book then. It taught me everything I should have learnt but was never taught. It demonstrates the subtleties of using the English language. Which, it seems to me, that between school, college and uni they expect you to learn but never actually teach. It took me only a week to read this book and I am a more confident writer as a result. There are some chapters that are specific to particular types of writing such as sports, or memoir so you can skip these if not suitable for your needs. This book is written by a journalist and so it is geared around getting you to write snappier more engaging pieces that would suit the news or feature stories. I wouldn't recommend it for academic writing so much.

My only criticism is Zinsser's attempt to wipe out the semi-colon in favour of the dash. How will we wink then ;)

United Kingdom on Aug 10, 2014

Lorilyn Roberts: I read On Writing Well by William Zinsser twice. I loved this book. sOn Writing Well embodies what excellent writing should be. At first I thought the book would be a dull "how to write" book, much like a cookbook, without a lot of creativity. Instead, On Writing Well has depth and soul. It challenges me to ask, what can I achieve for the glory of God if I implement these nuggets of wisdom?
On Writing Well gives me a high standard to emulate and debunks many myths perpetrated by people I consider more knowledgeable than myself. This book is a gift to anyone who takes writing seriously.

I also believe there is a spiritual battle waged in Christian writing. The evil one does not want God's glory to be revealed in human creativity. If he can persuade Christian writers through mediocrity and deception that publishing articles or books is the ultimate goal without a passion for truth, beauty, and redemption, our writing will be compromised. We will sacrifice our best-God's creativity--for a cheap counterfeit. As Zinsser states so well, we need role models who exhibit good writing that we can copy to help us develop our own style.

I also feel "normal" now knowing I am...

United States on Jun 29, 2013

O. Halabieh: As the title hints this book is a guide to writing nonfiction. This book is NOT a how-to write recipe book, rather one on fundamentals and principles. William structures his work into four sections through which he addresses the craft of writing.

The first section is one on principles (The Transaction, Simplicity, Clutter, Style, The Audience, Words and Usage). These principles according to the author can be learned through experience, but require effort as writing is hard. The call of this section is one for uttermost simplicity and clarity.

The second section is on methods (Unity, The Lead and the Ending, and Bits & Pieces). Theses methods address the structure of one's written piece, the importance of flow, and consistency. In addition, the fundamental concept of rewriting - being the essence of writing well - is also discussed.

The third section discusses the different forms of writing (Nonfiction as Literature, The Interview, The Travel Article, The Memoir, Science and Technology, Business Writing, Sports, Writing About the Arts, and Humor). This section focuses on the nuances of each of the mentioned forms, and the associated considerations. I found...

United States on May 21, 2011