Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
All writers should strive to deliver something fresh-something editors or readers won't know they want until they see it. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
You can solve most of your writing problems if you stop after every sentence and ask: what does the reader need to… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
“The reader is someone with an attention span of about 30 seconds.” — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
People and places are the twin pillars on which most nonfiction is built. Every human event happens somewhere, and the reader wants… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Finding a voice that your readers will enjoy is largely a matter of taste. Saying that isn't much help-taste is a quality… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Don't try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Also bear in mind, when you're choosing your words and stringing them together, how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Readers must be given room to bring their own emotions to a piece so crammed with emotional content; the writer must tenaciously… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with "but." If that's what you learned, unlearn it - there's no… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn't have before. Not two… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Not every oak has to be gnarled, every detective hard-bitten. The adjective that exists solely as a decoration is a self-indulgence for… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
You must find some way to elevate your act of writing into an entertainment. Usually this means giving the reader an enjoyable… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Don't hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident. . . . Every little qualifier whittles away some… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
“But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every words that serves no function, every… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
All your clear and pleasing sentences will fall apart if you don't keep remembering that writing is linear and sequential, that logic… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Writing is linear and sequential; Sentence B must follow Sentence A, and Sentence C must follow Sentence B, and eventually you get… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
There's no subject you don't have permission to write about. Students often avoid subjects close to their heart ... because they assume… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Write about small, self-contained incidents that are still vivid in your memory. If you remember them, it's because they contain a larger… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
My commodity as a writer, whatever I'm writing about, is me. And your commodity is you. Don't alter your voice to fit… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn't induce the reader to proceed to the second… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of… — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
“But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every words that serves no function, every long word… — William Zinsser Copy Share
No one has something original or important to say will willing we run the risk of being misunderstood; people who write obscurely are either… — William Zinsser Copy Share
Avoid the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic's quiver - words like "enthralling" and "luminous." — William Zinsser Copy Share
Scholarship hath no fury like that of a language purist faced with sludge. — William Zinsser Copy Share
Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes. — William Zinsser Copy Share
Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual - it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain. — William Zinsser Copy Share
Never hesitate to imitate another writer - every person learning a craft or an art needs models. Eventually you'll find your own voice and… — William Zinsser Copy Share
Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rode to glory on the back of the strong declarative sentence. — William Zinsser Copy Share
Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts. Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own. Writing enables us… — William Zinsser Copy Share
Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost. — William Zinsser Copy Share
Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can't exist without the other. — William Zinsser Copy Share
I almost always urge people to write in the first person. ... Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it. — William Zinsser Copy Share
