"On Writing Well" has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet.
Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or...
"On Writing Well" has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet.
Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, "On Writing Well" offers you fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sold, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.
作者简介
· · · · · ·
William Zinsser has been a mentor for countless people who want to write with clarity and confidence. His eighteen books include the classic On Writing Well, which has sold almost 1.5 million copies. He now teaches at the New School and at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.
目录
· · · · · ·
INTRODUCTION
PART I Principles
1 The Transaction
2 Simplicity
3 Clutter
4 Style
· · · · · ·
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INTRODUCTION
PART I Principles
1 The Transaction
2 Simplicity
3 Clutter
4 Style
5 The Audience
6 Words
7 Usage
PART II Methods
8 Unity
9 The Lead and the Ending
10 Bits & Pieces
PART III Forms
11 Nonfiction as Literature
12 Writing About People: The Interview
13 Writing About Places: The Travel Article
14 Writing About Yourself: The Memoir
15 Science and Technology
16 Business Writing: Writing in Your Job
17 Sports
18 Writing About the Arts: Critics and Columnists
19 Humor
PART IV Attitudes
20 The Sound of Your Voice
21 Enjoyment, Fear and Confidence
22 The Tyranny of the Final Product
23 A Writer’s Decisions
24 Writing Family History and Memoir
25 Write as Well as You Can
SOURCES
INDEX
· · · · · · (收起)
One (*my note:simplification for the readers)is craft, the other(*my note: writing for yourself) is attitude. The first is a question of mastering a precise skill; the second is a question of how you use the skill to express your personality. (查看原文)
纽约时报评价On Writing Well是一本指导英文写作的圣经，任何想让要自己文章简洁的人都应该没事拿出来读一读，膜拜膜拜。 Library Journal说，在这本书里，你可以看到“A love and respect for the language is evident on every page.” 读这本书的时候，我随时都把William ...
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上半年改文章改得头昏脑涨，被co-author批评做的东西很好就是不懂写，于是愈发觉得写作的重要性。Tom Rawski作为系里德高望重的老教授，在他的写作课被取消了之后，固执得让系里每年在新生欢迎会上给每个人发一本The Element of Style. 但那本书实在太条条框框了，to-do和not-t...
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P15 I would put brackets around every component in a piece of writing that wasn't doing useful work. Often just one word got bracketed: the unnecessary preposition appended to a verb ("order up"）， or the adverb that carries the same meaning as the verb ("smile happily"), or the adjective that states a known fact ("tall skyscraper") . Often my brackets surrounded the little qualifiers that we...
2019-01-16 11:041人喜欢
P15
I would put brackets around every component in a piece of writing that wasn't doing useful work. Often just one word got bracketed: the unnecessary preposition appended to a verb ("order up"）， or the adverb that carries the same meaning as the verb ("smile happily"), or the adjective that states a known fact ("tall skyscraper") . Often my brackets surrounded the little qualifiers that weaken any sentence they inhabit ("a bit","sort of "), or phrase like "in a sense," which don't mean anything.引自 Chapter 3 Clutter
“Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters. Writing is learned by imitation. If anyone asked me how I learned to write, I’d say I learned by reading the men and women who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it. But cultivate the best models. Don’t assume that because an article is in a newspaper...
2018-10-19 21:001人喜欢
“Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters. Writing is learned by imitation. If anyone asked me how I learned to write, I’d say I learned by reading the men and women who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it. But cultivate the best models. Don’t assume that because an article is in a newspaper or a magazine it must be good. Sloppy editing is common in newspapers, often for lack of time, and writers who use cliches often work for editors who have seen so many cliches that they no longer even recognize them.”
“You’ll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive.”
2018-10-19 20:511人喜欢
“You’ll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive.”
Q1 Style Good writers are visible just behind their words. If you aren’t allowed to use “I,” at least think “I” while you write, or write the first draft in the first person and then take the “I”s out. It will warm up your impersonal style. Sell yourself, and your subject will exert its own appeal. Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Writing is an act of ego, and you migh...
2015-11-01 22:10
Q1 Style
Good writers are visible just behind their words. If you aren’t allowed to use “I,” at least think “I” while you write, or write the first draft in the first person and then take the “I”s out. It will warm up your impersonal style.
Sell yourself, and your subject will exert its own appeal. Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going.引自 Part1:Principles
Q2 The Audience
Who am I writing for,It’s a fundamental question, and it has a fundamental answer: You are writing for yourself. Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person. Don’t try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read. Editors and readers don’t know what they want to read until they read it. Besides, they’re always looking for something new.
This may seem to be a paradox. Earlier I warned that the reader is an impatient bird, perched on the thin edge of distraction or sleep. Now I’m saying you must write for yourself and not be gnawed by worry over whether the reader is tagging along.
I’m talking about two different issues. One is craft, the other is attitude. The first is a question of mastering a precise skill. The second is a question of how you use that skill to express your personality.
First, work hard to master the tools. Simplify, prune and strive for order. Think of this as a mechanical act, and soon your sentences will become cleaner. The act will never become as mechanical as, say, shaving or shampooing; you will always have to think about the various ways in which the tools can be used. But at least your sentences will be grounded in solid principles, and your chances of losing the reader will be smaller.引自 Part1:Principles
Q3 Words
Don’t let yourself get in this position. The only way to avoid it is to care deeply about words. If you find yourself writing that someone recently enjoyed a spell of illness, or that a business has been enjoying a slump, ask yourself how much they enjoyed it. Notice the decisions that other writers make in their choice of words and be finicky about the ones you select from the vast supply. The race in writing is not to the swift but to the original.
Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters. Writing is learned by imitation. If anyone asked me how I learned to write, I’d say I learned by reading the men and women who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it. But cultivate the best models
Also get in the habit of using dictionaries
And don’t scorn that bulging grab bag Roget’s Thesaurus
Also bear in mind, when you’re choosing words and stringing them together, how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read with their eyes. But in fact they hear what they are reading far more than you realize. Therefore such matters as rhythm and alliteration are vital to every sentence引自 Part1:Principles
Q4 Usage
Good usage, to me, consists of using good words if they already exist—as they almost always do—to express myself clearly and simply to someone else引自 Part1:Principles
1. transaction Out of it come two of the most important qualities that this book will go in search of: humanity and warmth. 2.simplicity Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it's because it is hard.
2016-09-07 03:34
1. transaction
Out of it come two of the most important qualities that this book will go in search of: humanity and warmth.
2.simplicity
Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that
writing is hard, it's because it is hard.
...and whatever form the sentences take will reflect the writer at his most natural. ...rewriting is the essence of writing "What do you do on the day when it isn't going well?" Dr. Brock was asked. He said he just stopped writing and put the work aside for a day when it would go better. I then said that the professional writer must establish a daily schedule and stick to it. I said that writin...
2017-04-11 08:08
...and whatever form the sentences take will reflect the writer at his most natural.引自 The Transaction...rewriting is the essence of writing引自 The Transaction"What do you do on the day when it isn't going well?" Dr. Brock was asked. He said he just stopped writing and put the work aside for a day when it would go better. I then said that the professional writer must establish a daily schedule and stick to it. I said that writing is a craft, not an art, and that the man who runs away from his crafts because he lacks inspiration is fooling himself. He is also going broke.引自 The Transaction...professional writers are solitary drudges who seldom see other writers.引自 The TransactionAs for students, anyone might think we left them bewildered. But in fact we gave them a broader glimpse of the writing process than if only one of us had talked...There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.引自 The TransactionBut all of them are vulnerable and all of them are tense. They are driven by a compulsion to put some part of themselves on paper, and yet they don't just write what comes naturally. They sit down to commit an act of literature, and the self who emerges on paper is far stiffer than the person who sat down to write. The problem is to find the real man or woman behind the tension.引自 The Transaction...the most important quilities that this book will go in search of: humanity and warmth.引自 The TransactionGood writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize" the author. It's an question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest clarilty and strength.引自 The Transaction
地点： Connecticut 美国康乃迪克州（位于美国东北部） avocation vs vocation 业余爱好&业余爱好 easy,fun, words flow vs. not easy, not fun,hard, lonely, words seldom flow absolutely not to rewrite vs. rewriting is the essence of writing When it's not going well, just stop it. vs. writing is a craft not an art, and that the man who runs away from his craft because he lacks inspiration is fooling...
2019-01-22 21:43
地点： Connecticut 美国康乃迪克州（位于美国东北部）
avocation vs vocation 业余爱好&业余爱好
easy,fun, words flow vs. not easy, not fun,hard, lonely, words seldom flow
absolutely not to rewrite vs. rewriting is the essence of writing
When it's not going well, just stop it. vs. writing is a craft not an art, and that the man who runs away from his craft because he lacks inspiration is fooling himself. He is also going broke.
circulate in the literary world vs. professional writers are solitary drudges are seldom see other writers
panel ：A panel is a small group of people who are chosen to do something, for example, to discuss something in public or to make a decision. 专门小组
bohemian: An artist well-known for wearing filthy coveralls, or a musician who shares a cheap apartment with eight roommates and a pet monkey might be described as bohemian---that is, willfully unconventioal and nonconformist in both appearance and lifestyle.
A nonconformist lifestyle 一个不属于英国国教的生活方式，即一个与众不同的生活方式
arduous 艰辛的
gusto 热情
on the side: 作为兼职 Maybe I should take up surgery on the side.
aliveness 活力
gimmick 噱头
This is the personal transaction that's at the heart of good nonfiction writing. Out of it come two of the most important qualities that book will go in search of : humanity and warmth人性与温度
Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize" the author. It's a question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest clarity and strength.
The sentence is too simple—there must be something wrong with it. But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. How can the rest of us achieve such enviable freedom from clutter? The answer is to clear our heads of clutter. Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other. It won’t do to say that the reader is too dumb or too laz...
2020-03-30 14:34
The sentence is too simple—there must be something wrong with it.
But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.引自 2 SimplicityHow can the rest of us achieve such enviable freedom from clutter? The answer is to clear our heads of clutter. Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other. 引自 2 SimplicityIt won’t do to say that the reader is too dumb or too lazy to keep pace with the train of thought. If the reader is lost, it’s usually because the writer hasn’t been careful enough. 引自 2 SimplicityThat carelessness can take any number of forms.
Perhaps a sentence is so excessively cluttered that the reader, hacking through the verbiage, simply doesn’t know what it means.
Perhaps a sentence has been so shoddily constructed that the reader could read it in several ways.
Perhaps the writer has switched pronouns in midsentence, or has switched tenses, so the reader loses track of who is talking or when the action took place.
Perhaps Sentence B is not a logical sequel to Sentence A; the writer, in whose head the connection is clear, hasn’t bothered to provide the missing link.
Perhaps the writer has used a word incorrectly by not taking the trouble to look it up.引自 2 SimplicityWriters must therefore constantly ask: what am I trying to say? Surprisingly often they don’t know. Then they must look at what they have written and ask: have I said it? Is it clear to someone encountering the subject for the first time? If it’s not, some fuzz has worked its way into the machinery. The clear writer is someone clearheaded enough to see this stuff for what it is: fuzz.引自 2 SimplicityThinking clearly is a conscious act that writers must force on themselves, as if they were working on any other project that requires logic: making a shopping list or doing an algebra problem. 引自 2 SimplicityWriting is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it ishard.引自 2 Simplicity
You’ll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive. 最简单的例子：hate vs loathe, happy vs joyful, smart vs intelligent, taste vs savor vs relish vs enjoy, quiet vs serene vs tranquil vs peaceful vs calm....对于英语非母语的人来说掌握每个词的nuance & fabric是挺不容易的，必须结合文本体会（而且...
2020-03-09 15:08
You’ll never make your mark as a writer unless you develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning that is almost obsessive.引自 6 Words
最简单的例子：hate vs loathe, happy vs joyful, smart vs intelligent, taste vs savor vs relish vs enjoy, quiet vs serene vs tranquil vs peaceful vs calm....对于英语非母语的人来说掌握每个词的nuance & fabric是挺不容易的，必须结合文本体会（而且还得是好的role model，否则容易学坏）。
But cultivate the best models. Don’t assume that because an article is in a newspaper or a magazine it must be good.
引自 6 Words
惭愧地发现，很多作者定义的cliche我自己也常用：send shock waves, New York's finest, only to be met...我的role model是谁呢？A mishmash of the more respectable writers, gilded Reddit comments, glib fashion magazine articles, Roger Ebert and his equivalent in music and books, and even fan-fictions....15岁读完拜伦Manfred，我在高中英语课写作里模仿他的强调，立刻就被打了低分了。
I can testify from my newspaper days that the number of trips of to the water cooler per reporter-hour far exceeds the body’s need for fluids. 这本书读起来好顺 读到这里真的笑了 前面用秃头带假发够好玩了 这次我简直看到了我自己😄 一看章节 这也许就是这位作者的style
2020-03-05 10:45
I can testify from my newspaper days that the number of trips of to the water cooler per reporter-hour far exceeds the body’s need for fluids. 引自 4 Style
门特
Harper Perennial2006版
怀璧不予
中国人民大学出版社2013版
Miss Coconut
Daydreaming
Harper Perennial2006版
大炎
青杉树
中国人民大学出版社2013版
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做人，做其他事如是。
149 有用 阳志平 2013-12-06
写作最好的三本英文书，各自侧重点不同，是the elements of style，bird by bird，on writing well。这类写作风格，我总结为休谟风格，从休谟到毛姆，奥威尔，写【这就是纽约】的 E.B怀特，再到paul graham的【黑客与画家】，一个流派，易学易精。
1 有用 迷路的云 2013-04-14
类似elements of style 的扩展版，算是进阶教材，入门的话还是gre写作指南比较靠谱
6 有用 vieplivee 2015-06-24
海边林间，山前家里，这本书陪伴了我过去的好几个月，实在是超级精彩的一本写作之书——只是此书的范畴，实在属于人生。我肯定会重读的，而且不止一遍。
1 有用 [已注销] 2014-10-17
读过若干遍，还是写不来。。。
4 有用 瑞尔 2014-04-11
Has some great tips. BUT, it's far from being the so-called "industry BIBLE". Sometimes he doesn't even follow his own advice.
0 有用 Kummerspeckjea 2020-03-29
并不属于academic writing类工具书，于我来说最重要的是part124。写作是写给“我”看的，表达“我”需要简洁明了。还是需要扩大词汇量，尤其是动词和名词，果断的砍去各种形容词，副词和其他限定词，更表达直接深刻的意思。
0 有用 辣椒炒姑娘 2020-03-23
这位老师深受Strunk的影响，但我个人认为比elements of style更好读。和中文写作相通，后悔没有早点看，我写东西废话可太多了。
0 有用 郑奉常论隋炀帝 2020-03-21
这本书好归好，但是是针对初学者而言的，一旦真搞英语写作和翻译了，尤其是看19世纪的英语文献，你就应该明白：这本书的副作用非常大，严重拉低了英语阅读理解能力。
0 有用 兔兔🐰 2020-03-21
写作最后还是落实到人
0 有用 静美主义至上者 2020-03-15
去年上学的时老师推荐的对改进写作非常有帮助的一本书。