"Anyone who thinks clearly can write clearly"

Do you want to write better emails, blogs, reports, rants, speeches, tweets, LinkedIn posts or love letters? I’ve just finished On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser and I wished I discovered it years ago. It offers more practical advice per page than any other writing book I’ve read.

You probably know many of the rules already but Zinsser’s gift, like most good teachers, is the way he tells them. His effortless, warm style is peppered with anecdotes, quotes, examples and references that serve to entertain as well as educate.

It’s an easy read but to make it even easier, here are ten tips from Zinsser that will help improve your writing.

1. SHARE A LITTLE BIT OF YOURSELF

“Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is...This is the personal transaction that’s at the heart of good non-fiction writing. Out of it comes the two most important qualities...humanity and warmth.”

2. NARROW YOUR FOCUS

“Every writing project must be reduced before you start to write. Therefore think small. Decide what corner of your subject you’re going to bite off, be content to cover it well and stop.”

3. START STRONG

“Readers want to know — very soon — what's in it for them. Therefore, your lead must capture the reader immediately and force him to keep reading. It must cajole him with freshness, or novelty, or paradox, or humour, or surprise or with an unusual idea, or an interesting fact, or a question. Anything will do, as long as it nudges his curiosity and tugs at his sleeve.”

4. WRITE SHORTER SENTENCES

“Readers can process only one idea at a time, and they do it in a linear sequence...What do your readers want to know next? Ask yourself that question after every sentence...Much of the trouble that writers get into comes from trying to make one sentence do too much work. Never be afraid to break a long sentence into two short ones, or even three.”

5. THE POWER OF PARAGRAPHS

“Every paragraph should amplify the one that preceded it...Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual — it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain. 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.”

“Paragraphing is a subtle but important element in writing...a roadmap constantly telling your reader how you have organised your ideas. Study good nonfiction writers to see how they do it. You'll find that almost all of them think in paragraph units, not in sentence units. Each paragraph has its own integrity of content and structure.”

6. CUT THE CLUTTER

“Writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it that shouldn't be there...Examine every word you put on paper. You’ll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose...”

“Surprisingly often a difficult problem in a sentence can be solved by simply getting rid of it. Unfortunately, this solution is usually the last one that occurs to writers in a jam. First, they will put the troublesome phrase to all kinds of exertions — moving it to some other part of the sentence, trying to rephrase it, adding new words to clarify the thought or oil whatever is stuck... When you find yourself at such an impasse, look at the troublesome element and ask, “Do I need it at all.” Probably you don't. It was trying to do an unnecessary job all along — that's why it was giving you so much grief. Remove it and watch the afflicted sentence spring to life and breathe normally. It's the quickest cure and often the best.”

7. SAY WHAT YOU MEAN

“Prune out the small words that qualify how you feel and how you think and what you saw: “a bit”, “a little”, “sort of”, “rather”, “quite”, “very”, “too”, “pretty much”, “in a sense”, and dozens more. They dilute your style and your persuasiveness.”

“Don't say you were “a bit confused” and “sort of tired” and “a little depressed” and “somewhat annoyed”. Be confused. Be tired. Be depressed. Be annoyed. Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident.”

8. MAKE A GRACEFUL EXIT

“When you're ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit.”

“The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right. They didn't expect the article to end so soon, or so abruptly, or to say what it said. But they know it when they see it. Like a good lead, it works.”

9. IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED...TRY, TRY AGAIN

“Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it's where the game is won or lost. That idea is hard to accept. We all have an emotional equity in our first draft; we can't believe that it wasn't born perfect. But the odds are close to 100% that it wasn't. Most writers don't initially say what they want to say, or say it as well as they could. The newly hatched sentence almost always has something wrong with it. It's not clear. It's not logical. It's verbose. It's clunky. It's pretentious. It's boring. It's full of clutter. It's full of cliches. It lacks rhythm. It can be read in several different ways. It doesn't lead out of the previous sentence. The point is that clear writing is the result of a lot of tinkering.”

10. YOU CAN DO THIS

“Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly can write clearly, about anything at all.”