Classic Book on Writing Remains Relevant for Modern Writers

By: Jon Knudtson
William Zinsser’s book On Writing Well has helped aspiring writers to write well for over thirty years. What is it about this book that has kept it relevant in today’s society? According to some college students it’s Zinsser’s personal and professional writing.
“I spent way to much time writing wordy run on sentences before,” said Paul Wright, 21, “and it taught me some very practical applications such as cutting out adverbs and basically writing as you talk but with less clutter.” Zinsser focuses on writing simple sentences that are easy to connect with.
“I believe that at the forefront of writing, be it for fun or for Journalism, should be the importance of writing well grammatically and creatively,” said Ricky Marte, 20. “William Zinsser through his opinions embodies just that.” It seems that “Uncle Will” has helped many college students learn to write better through his simple and personable writing.
By using simple language Zinsser is able to stay relevant today, over 30 years after the first publication. Today society tries to complicate language to make it seem more professional. This causes everything to blend together and removes all personality from writing.
“The reader will notice if you are putting on airs,” Zinsser pointed out over 30 years ago. “Readers want the person who is talking to them to sound genuine. Therefore a fundamental rule is: be yourself.” Thanks to Zinsser’s ability to be himself throughout the entire book, it is able to stay relevant even today.
Zinsser focuses not only on the big picture ideas of writing, but also on things that are much simpler. In fact, simplicity seems to be a theme in the book. “Clutter is the disease of American writing,” said Zinsser in the second chapter. “We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.” I tend to agree immensely with the preceding sentence, and can only fervently pray that all young, promising writers learn to simplify their writing as well as the incredibly, amazing, master writer Zinsser himself. I hope that you disregard that last sentence.