On Writing Well by William Zinsser

Gursharan Summan

AP Lit & Comp,

Santa Teresa High, San Jose, CA

Dr. Lemco

8/23/11

Each year of my high school education I’ve been assigned summer reading, and this year was no different. Late last year I received a sheet listing the options for books that I had to read during summer vacation, and when I saw that the great Lemco was requiring all of his students to read William Zinsser’s On Writing Well,[i] I was far from enthused. I was expecting a lackluster non-fiction epic written in standard textbook-prose, comprised of concepts that I’d learned in elementary school. (Even the title is boring, I thought. And what kind of last name is Zinsser, anyway?) But I put aside my judgments and read it, and was stunned. Zinsser’s book contained captivating and accessible prose that provided golden advice on how to greatly improve as a writer. It forced me to reflect on myself as a writer, reader, and student, and brought me to the conclusion that in order to write as well as I can, I’d have to incorporate his guidance throughout all of my writing.

One of the many epiphanies I had while reading the book was triggered when Zinsser stated, “You are writing for yourself. Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience” (24).  Whenever I write for one of my classes, I become a con artist of sorts, trying to convince my audience that I know what I’m talking about—even if I don’t—adding one big word here, another big word there. Rather than making my narrative-voice a reflection of myself, I deviously alter it to impress the audience. But I am going to rid myself of this deceptive habit by staying true to myself. Zinsser brings to light another one of my many flaws when he declares:

 “Trust your material. . . . Don’t annoy your readers by over-explaining . . .” (88-9). I generally over-explain my points when I write. I don’t usually let my writing stand alone or the readers think for themselves. And I suppose this stems from an insecurity about the reader’s reactions, again going back to my habit of writing with the reader in mind. To excel in these areas, I’ve to learn to be myself when I’m writing, and to trust my material as it is.

One of the most effective passages of writing that I read in On Writing Well was a sentence taken from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (7-8). Thoreau’s sentence has a subtle energy about it and demonstrates a passionate love for the written word, and a clear command of language. Each word serves a purpose and takes the sentence where it needs to go. I envy Thoreau’s eloquence and simplicity, and I can only hope to implement these qualities within my own writing.

Humor is a feature that freshens up any piece of writing. Zinsser quotes a passage written by the great Woody Allen, which exemplifies top-rate humor:

“I have been asked if I was aware of the moral implications of what I was doing. As I told the tribunal at Nuremberg, I did not know that Hitler was a Nazi. The truth was that for years I thought he worked for the phone company. When I finally did find out what a monster he was, it was too late to do anything, as I had made a down payment on some furniture”

I laughed out loud when I read this—and I don’t usually laugh at what I’m reading unless it falls under one of two categories: either it’s hilarious, or it’s terrible. But this, without a doubt, is a hysterical little paragraph. Truth be told, I’m a sucker for many of Woody Allen’s films, so I don’t find it odd that I enjoyed this passage. As Zinsser mentions in his book, non sequiturs are characteristic of Woody Allen’s humor, and this passage was no exception. His humor arises from the nonsensical reasoning of the narrator, and it’s that sense of comedic mystery, not knowing what he’s going to say next, that makes this even better. But what I absolutely love about this quote is the fact that Allen stays true to who he is. Even though as I read the passage, I imagined the narrator as a blonde-haired blue-eyed buffoon with little to no sense, I also envisioned the bespectacled Woody Allen in a flannel shirt sitting at his typewriter as he typed and spoke the words in that mousy voice of his. He wrote it for himself, and therefore his true personality was reflected into words—and that’s a quality that I can only strive for.

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[i] William Zinsser, On Writing Well. (HarperCollins: New York, 2006).

All citations will include the page(s) in parentheses.

P.S. Previously, Gursharan Summan contributed a piece called Feet Planted.  You can read it here. 

P.S. 2: 'The Schmeed Memoirs' from which the Woody Allen line was taken was originally published in The New Yorker in 1971.  Only a single used copy is available on Amazon priced at $148.42. If you are into Woody Allen memorabilia, take note. That's cheaper than the Academy Award autographed photo signed by Woody Allen, Ellen Burstyn, Joel Gray, Mercedes Ruehl, Maximillion Schell, Judi Dench and Olympia Dukakis - selling for $720.80 on E-bay. Check it out.