Zinsser That!

Some criticisms you can expect to hear as a writer or copywriter are:

“My 5-year old could have written this”

“It’s boring”

“I don’t get it”

“It’s too long”

“What does this mean?”

“Can we see some other ideas?”

It could mean you need to “Zinsser” your writing.

“Zinsser” your writing – what’s that?

You can find out this Saturday.

And next Tuesday.

When you can read 2 essays on the landmark guide to good non-fiction writing... 

William Zinsser’s “On Writing Well”

The essays were contributed to the blog by Shantel Chavez and Gursharan Summan, 2 AP English Language and Composition students of Santa Teresa High School in San Jose, California.

Without giving too much away about the book, or the essays, let me ask - do you use any of the following in your e-mails, letters, presentations, essays or articles...

·                                       

·        It is interesting to note that

·        At this time

·        And may I add

You do? Don’t worry, I do too!

It suggests we need Dr. Zinsser's help.

Zinsser, The Dr. Spock of Writing

Zinsser is the doctor whom students and aspiring writers are sent to if their professors think they have a writing problem.

Zinsser identifies and suggests the prescription for common writing errors such as …

·        Mixing tense use

·        Being verbose or using empty words and phrases

·        Being overly self-conscious or pretentious

·        Forgetting there’s a ton of stuff competing for your reader’s attention

From Yale and Columbia to Your Kindle or Nook

On Writing Well marks one of 17 books in all written by Zinsser.

If you read these books, you can pick up the advice he gave his writing students at Yale and Columbia.

And you can also pick up the advice he gave readers in his Saturday Evening Post, Life, New York Times and Sports Illustrated columns.

Zinsser still dispenses wisdom on his blog at The American Scholar which you should check out sometime.

But not before you check this blog coming Saturday and next Tuesday for Shantel's and Gursharan’s essays on “On Writing Well”. Thanks!

P.S. Here’s what the New York Times had to say about On Writing Well:

 “On Writing Well belongs on any shelf of serious reference works for writers.”

P.S 2: To read Shantel Chavez’s essay on "On Writing Well", check out the blog Saturday.

P.S.3: To read Gursharan Summan's essay on "On Writing Well", check out the blog next Tuesday.

As always, thanks for reading my posts as well as the guest posts featured on this blog.