On Writing Well by William K. Zinsser.

Part 1: Principles. (On Writing Well)

1. The Transaction

2. Simplicity
   

   "Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon."

3. Clutter

   "Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds--the writer is always slightly behind. New varieties sprout overnight, and by noon they are part of American speech." "Clutter is the ponderous euphemism ..." "Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes." "Clutter is the language of the Pentagon throwing dust in the eyes of the populace by calling an invasion a 'reinforced protective reaction strike' and by justifying its vast budgets on the need for 'counterforce deterrence.' How can we grasp such vaporous double-talk?" "Most first drafts can be cut by 50 percent."

   To help students recognize clutter, Zinsser would place brackets around clutter so the students could decide if they agreed it was not doing useful work:

   • Unnecessary preposition added to a verb, as in "order (up)".
   • Adverb that carries same meaning as the verb, as in "smile (happily)".
   • Qualifiers, such as "(a bit)" or "(sort of)".
   • Announcements, such as "(I'm tempted to say)" or "(in a sense)".
   • Pompous phrases; ponderous euphemisms.
   • "The laborious phrase that has pushed out the short word that means the same thing."
   • Long word that is no better than a short word.

   "Is every word doing new work? Can any thought be expressed with more economy? Is anything pompous or pretentious or faddish? Are you hanging on to something useless just because you think it is beautiful? Simplify, simplify."

4. Style

5. The Audience

6. Words

7. Usage

8. Unity

Part 2: Forms and Methods. (On Writing Well)

9. Nonfiction as Literature
10. Writing About People: The Interview
11. Writing About Places: The Travel Article
12. Writing About Yourself: The Memoir
13. Bits and Pieces
14. The Lead and the Ending
15. Science and Technology
16. Business Writing: Writing in Your Job
17. Rewriting and Word Processing
18. Sports
19. Criticism
20. Humor
21. A Writer's Decisions: Organizing a Long Article
22. Write as Well as you can

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