William Zinsser
"... the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that servces no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that's already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what--these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence."
William Zinsser, On Writing Well, pp. 7-8.
"It won't do to say the reader is too dumb or too lazy to keep pace with the train of thought. If the reader is lost, it's usually because the writer hasn't been careful enough."
William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 9.
"Faced with... obstacles, readers are at first tenacious. They blame themselves--they obviously missed something, and they go back over the mystifying sentence, or over the whole paragraph, piecing it out like an ancient rune, making guesses and moving on. But they won't do that for long. The writer is making them work too hard, and they will look for one who is better at the craft."
William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 12.
"Writers must... constantly ask: what I am trying to say? Surprisingly often they don't know."
William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 12.
"Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose ."
William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 13.
"Beware of all the slippery new fad words: paradigm and parametre, prioritise and potentialise. They are all weeds that will smother what you write. Don't dialogue with someone you can talk to. Don't interface with anybody."
William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 16.
"The reader will notice if you are putting on airs. Readers want the person who is talking to them to sound genuine."
William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 20.
"Credibility is just as fragile for a writer as for a President. Don't inflate an incident to make it more outlandish than it actually was. If the reader catches you in just one bogus statement that you are trying to pass off as true, everything you write thereafter will be suspect. It's too great a risk, and not worth taking."
William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 78.
"Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual--it catches they eye before it has a chance to catch the brain."
William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 80.
"Short paragraphs put air around what you write and make it look inviting, whereas a long chunk of type can discourage a reader from even starting to read."
William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 80.
"Just because people work for an institution, they don't have to write like one. Institutions can be warmed up. Administrators can be turned into human beings. Information can be imparted clearly and without pomposity. "
William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 167.