On Writing Well by William Zinsser

PART 1 Expressions

1. The personal friend has come into the language to distinguish him or her from the business friend, thereby debasing both language and friendship.

debase: to make sb or sth lose its value or people's respect

The medical profession has been debased by these revelations.

debase oneself eg. actos who debased themselves by participating in the show

debase a currency/ coinage: reduce its value

2. Americans are unwilling to go out on a limb.

out on a limb: alone and without help or support

go out on a limb= take a risk

All the other countries signed the agreement, leaving Britain out on a limb.

He'd gone out on a limb to help us.

3. Other old writers ramble and repeat themselves.

ramble: (v.) to talk for a long time in a way that does not seem clearly organized so that other people find it difficult to understand of find boring

She's getting old and she tends to ramble a lot.

ramble on about sth

My father kept rambling on about the war.

(n.) a speech or piece of writing that is very long and does not seem to be clearly organized

In a ten-page ramble, Barre explains why he wrote the book.

4. I don't consider them slang, or put quotation marks around them to show that I'm mucking about in the argot of the youth culture and really know better.

muck: (n.) 污泥 muck about/ around: to behave in a silly way, especially when you should be working or paying attention SYN mess around, fool around 鬼混；捣乱

Stop mucking about and listen!

Some of the boys were mucking around on bikes.

argot:  jargon, expressions used by a particular group of people

teenage argot

5. ebb/ ebb away: (v.) to gradually decrease

Linda's enthusiasm began to ebb away.

be at a low ebb: to be in a bad state or condition

His confidence is at a low ebb.

PART 2 Summary

There is no one-size-fits-all writing method. The right method is the one that helps you express your thoughts. The knack of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. A clear sentence is not an accident but rather the result of hard work.

Clutter which is the laborious phrase that has pushed out the short word that means the same thing, is the enemy of good writing. Zinsser suggested putting brackets around every component in a piece of writing that wasn't doing useful work.

Finding or adding a style could only render the writer unlike himself. Therefore a fundamental rule of good writing is to be yourself. One of the good methods is to write in the first person. Writers are not writing for the mass audience or editors but rather themselves. They should be upfront about their own feelings and avoid pretentiousness.

Journalese which is full of cheap words, made-up words and cliché, is the enemy of good writing. Three suggestions are given by William Zinsser. First, make a habit of reading. Second, get in the habit of using dictionaries. Third, consider rhythm and alliteration while writing.

Guardians of usage not only should keep the language from becoming sloppy but also ought to welcome any new word or phrase that will bring strength or color. Writers should separate usage from jargon and separating good English from technical English.

Unity is the anchor of good writing. Unity refers to the unity of pronoun, unity of tense and unity of mood. 

A good lead is one that captures readers immediately and forces them to keep reading. Adding a vein of freshness, or novelty or paradox or humor etc. to the lead can do the trick.  On the other part, a good ending is no less important than a good lead. It not only could save an article from being wrecked at its final stage, but also could linger and give the readers a lift. A perfect ending takes readers slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right. 

PART 3 Reflections

Writing essays was one of the most excruciating experiences in my high school. Most of the time, I had divergent views with my teacher on which to elaborate and when to close. She always said to me, "Never let your readers guess the implications and your undertones behind the sentences."  I would then revise my essay by tacking on extra paragraphs to "explain" my feelings and thoughts. However, I always found them superfluous and that they only made my essays less mesmerizing. I budged because I wasn't writing for myself, but for those who would access and score my essays. 

I can't agree with Zinsser more that the key of a good writing is to write for yourself, being upfront with your own feelings and avoid pretentiousness. William Shakespeare once said, there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes. In other words, readers are diverse and capricious, and it's extremely hard, if not impossible, to please all readers. It would be all the easier to focus on pleasing only one person -- yourself. Take Born a Crime as an example, Trevor Noah wrote with no frills or clutters. He didn't lambast the apartheid system. Instead, he depicted his own experience of being hidden by his family and told us that he couldn't walk with his father in public. I was blown away by his sincerity. He had no interest in currying favor with the readers by being cynical or sugarcoating the situations. If there was someone he wrote for other than himself, it was only his mother.