Journal of Applied Communications
Volume 82 | Issue 3 Article 5
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing
Nonfiction (6th ed.).
Jack Sperbeck
University of Minnesota
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Recommended Citation
Sperbeck, Jack (1998) "On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction (6th ed.).," Journal of Applied Communications: Vol.
82: Iss. 3. https://doi.org/10.4148/1051-0834.2219
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On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction (6th ed.).
Abstract
A review of On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction (6th ed.), by William Zinsser.
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Reviews
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to
Writing Nonfiction (6th ed.).
William Zinsser. 1998. Harper Collins,
New York, NY, ISBN 0-06-273523-3.
$14.00.
The cover of the new 6th edition of Zinsser's On Writing
Well says over 900,000 copies of the book have been sold.
There's a good chance you may have had it as the required
text for undergraduate writing courses.
This book is a great reference for the everyday on-the-job
memo and letter writer as well as for those of us who make our
livings at the keyboard. It's also a good reference if you're
doing in-service writing training for your organization .
I've been using it for the course I teach, Writing for Publica-
tion, for the past eight to 10 years. There are three new
chapters in this latest edition. One is labeled "Enjoyment,
Fear and Confidence" and urges writers to "live interestingly,
to convey a zest for what they're writing about."
But the basic parts of the book that emphasize simplicity
and eliminating clutter have remained unchanged over the
past two or three editions. This won't help book sales-but if
you find a fifth, fourth or even earlier edition you can probably
save enough to buy lunch and still get the basic message.
At the beginning of every term I tell my students that three
short chapters on "Simplicity," "Clutter" and "Bits and Pieces"
are the key to the course: master the concepts and you get
that 'A'.
The book is an interesting and entertaining read-it prac-
tices what it preaches. As a companion book, I use The
Associated Press Guide to Good Writing. It also emphasizes
clarity and zest, but most of its examples (both good and bad)
are in newspaper style.
46 / Journal of Applied Communications, Vol. 82, No. 3, 1998
And you journalism types should love what Zinsser says in
the "Nonfiction as Literature" chapter. "l have no patience
with the snobbery that says nonfiction is only journalism by
another name and that journalism by any name is a dirty word.
While we're redefining literature, let's also redefine journalism.
Journalism is writing that first appears in any periodic journal,
whatever its constituency."
Zinsser references an earlier classic, The Elements of Style,
by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, and says every writer
should re-read it once a year.Some good things don't change;
Professor Will Strunk wrote The Elements of Style in the First
World War era.
Jack Sperbeck
University of Minnesota
I
Journal of Applied Communications, Vol. 82, No. 3, 1998 / 47
