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Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.

William Zinsser

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William Zinsser
Age: 92 †
Born: 1922
Born: October 7
Died: 2015
Died: May 12
Journalist
Literary Critic
Writer
New York City
New York
William Knowlton Zinsser
Unnecessary
Construction
Frills
Meaningless
Constructions
Disease
Strangling
Society
Circular
American
Jargon
Words
Pompous
Writing
Clutter

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Readers must be given room to bring their own emotions to a piece so crammed with emotional content the writer must tenaciously resist explaining why the material is so moving.
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Writing is thinking on paper.
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A clear sentence is no accident.
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Thought is action in rehearsal.
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Noise is the typographical error and the poorly designed page...Ambiguity is noise. Redundancy is noise. Misuse of words is noise. Vagueness is noise. Jargon is noise.
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If you write for yourself, you'll reach all the people you want to write for.
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A simple [writing] style is the result of very hard work.
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Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with but. If that's what you learned, unlearn it - there's no stronger word at the start. It announces a total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change.
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Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard. It's one of the hardest things that people do
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To defend what you've written is a sign that you are alive.
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Motivation clears the head faster than a nasal spray.
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Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds-the writer is always slightly behind.
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All writers should strive to deliver something fresh-something editors or readers won't know they want until they see it.
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Avoid the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic's quiver - words like enthralling and luminous.
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You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: what does the reader need to know next?
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Never hesitate to imitate another writer. Imitation is part of the creative process for anyone learning an art or a craft. Bach and Picasso didn't spring full-blown as Bach or Picasso they needed models. This is especially true of writing.
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Today the outlandish becomes routine overnight. The humorist is trying to say that it's still outlandish.
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My four articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.
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Writers are the custodians of memory, and that's what this chapter is about: how to leave some kind of record of your life and of the family you were born into.
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Writers can write to affirm and to celebrate, or they can write to debunk and destroy the choice is ours.
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