Rating: 
Summary: Worthless Book
Review: How Zinsser can call himself a writer is beyond me. This book is filled with hostility, arrogance, and hypocrisy. All of the points Zinsser makes about being an effective writer are contradicted at some point throughout the book, either directly via a comment, or through his own writing style.'Part-time' writers are trivialized and all forms of writing except that which Zinsser purports to practice are criticized. This book is nothing more than a blatant attempt at self-aggrandization. If you're truly interested in being a writer, ignore all of the nonsensical garbage Zinsser writes. Trust me, I've been a newspaper editor for 25 years.
Rating: 
Summary: A writing book you won't be able to put down.
Review: Another Outsource Marketing favorite! We bought a copy of this book after reading an article by its author, William Zinsser. The article was about an antique baseball board game, and it was so fascinating, I typed Zinsser's name into Google to see if he could find other articles. I learned that Zinsser was a former New York Herald Tribune editor and taught writing at Yale. And that his book, On Writing Well, was in its seventh printing. I ordered it immediately and just about everyone at Outsource Marketing has read it more than once. The amazing thing is how much fun it was to read a book about writing. Zinsser supplies generous advice about writing non-fiction in general, and in some of its specific forms (e.g., travel, sports, technology). He makes these practical guidelines as interesting as antique board games (or, one suspects, anything else he writes about). We can't really describe how he does it. We just wish we could do it half as well. Good marketing has to do with selection: of markets, audiences, media, and images. At its core, though, is the selection of words that will make a product understandable, interesting, and appealing. This is the best book we've read about how to write that way.
Rating:
Summary: Indispensable nonfiction writing book
Review: Williams Zissner has written and edited dozens of books, many of them on the craft of writing. He's seen plenty of bad writing in his lifetime, and in "On Writing Well" he shows you how to avoid it. The book is divided into 4 sections and several chapters. The first 2 sections (pages 1-92) deal with the craft of nonfiction itself. Topics such as avoiding clutter, writing for the appropriate audience, word usage and beginning/ending the piece are covered, among several others. In section 3 (pages 95-229) he deals with specific forms of nonfiction, including travel writing, science and technology, sports and humor genres. The last section (pages 233-294) addresses finding your voice and general topics about the career and choices of the professional writer. This is a wonderful book for any prose writer, whether it's fiction, screenplays or travel articles. Zissner's love for the English language is transcended onto the page with each word he writes. He isn't afraid to say it like it is, mentioning that most people just simply write horribly and then offering his own opinion as to just why this is. "On Writing Well" should be in every writer's collection.
Rating:
Summary: Must have!
Review: I wanted to improve my writing skills, so I came across this recommended book in the back of literary magazine. I bought it and could not put it down.
"On Writing Well" was first published in 1976. I read the reprinted version. If you are non-fiction writer, this book is for you. The chapters are broken down into Principles, Methods and Forms.
The Principles chapter states simplicity and avoid clutter in your writing. Find your audience and use words to enhance that aspect. "Clutter is the disease of American writing." William Zinsser said.
The Methods chapter states "Learn to write by writing." Write anything and everything that comes to you. Write outside your comfront zone genre. Research something you know nothing about.
The Forms chapter includes writing about people, places and yourself.
"Writing wasn't easy and wasn't fun" and it was "hard work and his words seldom just flowed." He said.
I keep this book close to my own writing habits. I wish I read this book before I wrote my book. Anyway, chapter 10 gives "Bits and Pieces" on usage. He gives examples of using active verbs, Adverbs and paragraph construction. Other chapters include business writing, sports writing and critical writing.
William Zinsser uses plenty of his own writing to critique. Stating examples of poor sentence structure and misused words. He recommends to write and rewrite. And rewrite again.
"Good writing is good writing."
Rating:
Summary: Zinsser's Digest is Easy to Swallow
Review: In the Introduction's first paragraph of William Zinsser's instructive monologue, he sounds off our quieted but conspicuously shared shame: "Fear of writing gets planted in most Americans at an early age." Zinsser commences his jovial lessons with a touch of satire on what we must do to keep our audience, who he defines as "someone with an attention span of about 30 seconds." Then he limns: "The person snoozing in a chair with a magazine or a book was given too much unnecessary trouble by the writer." Zinsser's manual on writing delivers an easy-going conversation in a warm voice, which boosts the reader's confidence. His adroit discussion is easy to follow as he takes the reader by the hand from one lesson to the next using a stripped-down writing style. His lessons are strong and clear. In this book, Zinsser may be the victim of his own success. As he focuses on science and technical writing, business writing, sports, humor, and other forms of nonfiction writing, he may have covered too much ground in this 320-page précis. However, with over a million copies sold since its First Edition (published in 1976) the phrase "victim" is to be used loosely. Enjoy reading the well-written book and enjoy writing well!
Rating: 
Summary: Cassette not for me
Review: I committed the unpardonable error of buying the abridged cassette. Not only was the narrative boiled down to less than inadequate bare essentials, the tonal quality of the tape was horrid. Why couldn't the entire book be recorded? Zinsser makes a few great points but I knew I had missed far too much by taking a wretched shortcut Now I will have to purchase the book as well.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: I have read this book already, but every once in a while I pick it up for inspiration or just to nag me about what I should be doing and how I should be doing it. I don't have an editor, and lord knows the people I work with know less than I do about writing.
Rating:
Summary: Good advice, but not boring!
Review: Zinsser has accomplished in this book what very few of my teachers have ever accomplished in the classroom: he gave good advice without being dull about it. After reading only the first few pages of this book, I was hooked. I couldn't read fast enough to keep my brain satisfied. My parents were kind of making fun of me as I read it because the title makes it sound "oh so interesting," but I've got to admit, it really was! Zinsser uses a combination of humor and wisdom to prove his points, and shows the differences between good and bad writing through real examples like books and speeches (like my English teacher says, "SHOW DON'T TELL"). I definitely recommend this book to college students and aspiring writers...once you get your grades back, you won't regret reading it!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent reference
Review: Excellent reference for writers, college students, and anyone else looking to improve their writing. I felt pretty secure in my writing style, so I purchased the book more out of curiosity. After reading the first few chapters, and applying the guidance offered in the book, my next paper put my past papers to shame. This book is excellent for those who write well and want to write even better.
Rating:
Summary: Practices what it preaches
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. I absolutely could not put it down! If you are interested in clear, concise writing, this is a "must have".
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