Thinking books · Communication & persuasion · William Zinsser, 1976

On Writing Well — the big ideas

A guide to clear non-fiction writing, and by extension to clear thinking.

Free — no account needed to read

The big ideas

Its central claim is that clutter in writing is usually unclear thinking wearing a disguise, which makes editing a form of thinking rather than tidying.

Strip every sentence to its cleanest components — the words that do no work are the ones hiding the sentence you meant.

Write for yourself rather than an imagined audience, and trust that clarity carries.

Practise it — no need to have read it

Take a paragraph you wrote recently. Cut a quarter of the words without losing meaning.

A hint: If you cannot, the paragraph may be saying less than you thought.

Where it shows up in real life

• Emails and documents
• Explaining a decision
• Clarifying your own thinking

Described in our own words with the source named — never quoted, and not a substitute for reading the book.