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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
Even a poor translator couldn't kill a style that moves with such narrative clarity.
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If you lose the dullards back in the dust, that's where they belong. You don't want them anyway.
William Zinsser
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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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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Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds-the writer is always slightly behind.
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People and places are the twin pillars on which most nonfiction is built. Every human event happens somewhere, and the reader wants to know what that somewhere was like.
William Zinsser
Writing improves in direct ratio to the things we can keep out of it that shouldn't be there.
William Zinsser
Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading.
William Zinsser
Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to personalize the author.
William Zinsser
Nobody ever stopped reading E. B. White or V. S. Pritchett because the writing was too good.
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One of the saddest sentences I know is I wish I had asked my mother about that. Or my father. Or my grandmother. Or my grandfather. As every parent knows, our children are not as fascinated by our fascinating lives as we are.
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Good writing is lean and confident.
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A writer is always working.
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Never forget that you are practicing a craft with certain principles.
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There's no subject you don't have permission to write about. Students often avoid subjects close to their heart ... because they assume that their teachers will regard those topics as 'stupid.' No area of life is stupid to someone who takes it seriously. If you follow your affections you will write well and will engage your readers.
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Write about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them, it's because they contain a larger truth that your readers will recognize in their own lives. Think small and you'll wind up finding the big themes in your family saga.
William Zinsser
A simple [writing] style is the result of very hard work.
William Zinsser
Don't be kind of bold. Be bold.
William Zinsser
Writing is hard work.
William Zinsser
Journalism is writing that first appears in any periodic journal.
William Zinsser
