Write It Right ~ two books on writing (no, three)

I was too busy to respond a month ago, when Chris of Chrisbookarama wrote Thoughts on Two Books about Writing.  I had been re-reading the third edition of The Elements of Style by Strunk and White (that would be the 1979 edition), and it was beside me on my desk as I read her post praising the book.  The other book Chris mentioned was The Writing Life by Annie Dillard.  Chris asked, "Do you have any favorite books on writing you would recommend?"

  The one that immediately came to mind was William Zinsser's On Writing Well, now in its seventh edition.  It's an excellent book on writing, and I was surprised that no one else mentioned it.  Wikipedia says,

"Zinsser emphasizes word economy."

Author James J. Kilpatrick, in his book The Writer's Art says that if he were limited to just one book on how to write, it would be William Zinsser's On Writing Well. He adds,

"Zinsser's sound theory is that 'writing improves in direct ratio to the number of things we can keep out of it.'"

Some teachers even go as far as to tell their students to "Zinsser" their work (to zinsser means to take the clutter out of their essays).  The cover pictured here is the 30th anniversary edition.

I also have Writing to Learn (1988) by Zinsser, on how to write and think clearly about any subject at all.  The title of the second chapter may sound familiar to teachers:  "Writing Across the Curriculum."  Think of it as an interdisciplinary approach to writing.

Zinsser's web site has excerpts from several of his books, including On Writing Well and Writing to Learn.

This Write It Right post is part of my new series about words and writing.