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Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual - it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain.

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
Writing
Visuals
Visual
Catch
Short
Brain
Chance
Paragraphs
Eye
Catches
Keep
Paragraph

More quotes by William Zinsser

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Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.
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You learn to write by writing.
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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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Writing is a craft not an art.
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A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing.
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Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.
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All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem.
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I think a sentence is a fine thing to put a preposition at the end of.
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Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes.
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Few people realize how badly they write. Nobody has shown them how much excess or murkiness has crept into their style.
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Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.
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Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what has been written before. Writing is learned by imitation.
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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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Writing is not a special language that belongs to a few sensitive souls who have a 'gift for words'. Writing is the logical arrangement of thought. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly---about any subject at all.
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Writers who think THEY are being criticized when only that writing is being criticized are beyond a teacher's reach. Writing can only be learned when a writer coldly separates himself from what he has written and looks at it with the objectivity of a plumber examining a newly piped bathroom to see if he got all the joints tight.
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Although the frankfurter originated in Frankfurt, Germany, we have long since made it our own, a twin pillar of democracy along with Mom's apple pie. In fact, now that Mom's apple pie comes frozen and baked by somebody who isn't Mom, the hot dog stands alone. What it symbolizes remains pure, even if what it contains does not.
William Zinsser
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Clutter is the disease of American writing.
William Zinsser
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If you write for yourself, you'll reach all the people you want to write for.
William Zinsser
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Don’t say you were a bit confused and sort of tired and a little depressed and somewhat annoyed. Be tired. Be confused. Be depressed. Be annoyed. Don’t hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident.
William Zinsser
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The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn't induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. And if the second sentence doesn't induce him to continue to the third sentence, it's equally dead.
William Zinsser