And a quick-shooting, hard-hitting, punchy prose style just won’t do the trick. But often non-fiction writers have-dare I say it?-higher aspirations. He wishes only to hook the reader, crack a few jokes on the way, maybe include some light food for thought, and make a quick exit. And for pretentious me, Zinsser comes across as a bit vulgar. But it hardly runs the whole gamut of nonfiction. I have no problem with this kind of writing-style-my mother is a journalist. If you have aspirations to work for a newspaper or a magazine-or even write a popular non-fiction book-I would highly recommend this book. This is a great skill, and Zinsser has some great advice. It’s writing well-suited to its purpose-to provide entertainment and light education for casual readers. What you will learn in this book is how to do a specific type of writing: journalistic nonfiction. What bothers me is that Zinsser doesn’t seem realize how provincial are his ideas. Where’s the poetry? Where’s the lofty argument and philosophical reflection? Of course, you can’t please everybody. But I’m sure his conversational tone would sound coarse and inelegant to many readers. It varies from person to person, from subject to subject, from country to country, and from age to age. The more I read, the more I realize that what constitutes good style cannot be put into a formula. In fact, this book is hardly more than a commentary, expansion, and application of Strunk and White’s ideas. This leads him to a straightforward adoption of the axioms of The Elements of Style. Zinsser’s approach to writing is that of a factory owner seeking to improve his business model. What Zinsser is doing in this book is applying a capitalist sensibility to prose.
Whatever it is, it’s on full display here. Perhaps this American temper is part of the “Protestant Ethic," made so famous by Max Weber. We set ourselves a goal and go straight for it. We like to see efficiency and real-world results. We are a people who love action and despise abstract argument. Lucky for me, I am a creature with little shame, so I’ll let my prose all hang out.Īfter reading Pragmatism by the American philosopher William James, I’ve realized that some American qualities cut deep.
One feels naked, exposed-now you have to prove that you’ve learned something. It’s always intimidating setting out to write a review of a book on writing.
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