On Writing Well: An Essential Guide to Crafting Engaging Nonfiction

Alex: I enjoyed every page. I took away a long list of dos and don‘ts of effective writing.

Germany on Dec 24, 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

Ramanbir singh: Choose this book if are a writer. Highly recommended for content writers

India on Jan 02, 2023

michel: There are other books on writing styles that look like grammars, with list of rules, and some examples of what to do and to avoid. This book is different, it is written in a lively engaging style that follows its own teaching, and often does it with humor. One important advice is that writers should pay close attention to the sorority of sentences, and indeed it is highly ro listen to its audio book version. It is difficult, after reading it, to indulge into bad writing habits, now, I found myself overwriting unnecessary words and verbiage in my texts. This book cannot be praised too highly, my only wish is to have another book, from the same author, listing which writers he preferred and why, although a partial list can be gathered inside this book.

Canada on Jun 06, 2022

Edward: Do you know how to write? I asked myself this before buying the book. I didn’t know the answer. My writing experience through college was that the professors assumed that I knew how to write, assigned a paper, and then graded it with no feedback. I wrote a lot but didn’t learn a lot about writing. Since college, I had started writing again. I had picked up a few tips here and there from reading books and blogs. I felt like I knew what I was doing.

Then my friend recommended me this book. It made me question what it means to write well. I knew what I thought writing well meant, but I didn’t know what successful authors thought it meant. That ignorance made me decide to buy the book.

Reading this book was a journey — it started out great, then dragged on and became unbearable, and then ended on a high note with the most useful information.

The beginning either taught me keys to writing well or reinforced ones that I already knew: write with confidence; speak from the first person; tell your story; use a unique perspective; and use peculiar phrases to keep the reader attentive.

Then came the descent. Zinsser is a great writer, but not the best...

United States on Jun 02, 2018

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