“Tell them,” Roosevelt said, “that in buildings where they have to keep the work going to put something across the windows.” Roosevelt when he tried to convert into English his own governments memos, such as this blackout order of 1942: Such preparations shall be made as will completely obscure all Federal buildings and non-Federal buildings occupied by the Federal government during an air raid for any period of time from visibility by reason of internal or external illumination. And they usually occur in proportion to education and rank” Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what- these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. “But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. “Can such principles be taught? Maybe not. “It’s not necessary to want to spend a year alone at Walden Pond to become involved with a writer who did.” Maybe I should take up surgery on the side.”

“I said that professional writers are solitary drudges who seldom see other writers.” I said that writing is a craft, not an art, and that the man who runs away from his craft because he lacks inspiration is fooling himself. “I then said that the professional writer must establish a daily schedule and stick to it. I pointed out that professional writers rewrite their sentences over and over and then rewrite what they have rewritten.” I then said that rewriting is the essence of writing. “Let it all hang out,” he told us, and whatever form the sentences take will reflect the writer at his most natural.

It was hard and lonely, and the words seldom just flowed.” I then said that writing wasn’t easy and wasn’t fun. “The word processor made good writers better and bad writers worse.” “Writing is talking to someone else on paper.” Most Important Keywords, Sentences, Quotes:

Attitudes. The last part of the book explains how to craft your voice, how to craft the perfect piece, and how to write as well as you can.

Also in forms, Zinsser tells us about business writing, sports, and humor. Forms. Forms deals with writing people, places, and yourself.Methods. Methods is about unity (unity of tenses and pronouns), composing a great lead and realizing when you need to end the piece.Here, Zinsser talks about simplicity, style, removing clutter, target audience, and the usage of words (short, concise, clear, and humane) On Writing Well is divided into four major parts:

On Writing Well by William Zinsser