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Chapter 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in On Writing Well, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Human Element
Simplicity vs. Clutter
Process and Organization
The Gift of Writing
Summary
Analysis
Zinsser warns his readers against using “journalese,” or the lazy, clichéd style that dominates popular newspapers and magazines. Journalese mixes parts of speech and strings together common phrases and metaphors without regard for their real meaning. To avoid it, successful writers have to be obsessive about understanding words and choosing the right ones.
By analyzing journalese, Zinsser argues that word choice is the foundation of style. Journalese is the opposite of good writing. Its defining feature is poor word choice, and its cardinal sin is imprecision. It’s boring to read because there’s nothing original in it—writers use it when they have no distinctive voice of their own. In contrast, good writing is precise because the best writers are always looking for the best possible word.
Themes
Writers ought to read as much as possible—because imitation is the best way to learn to write—and they need a good dictionary and thesaurus on hand. They should be aware of how their sentences sound, not just how they look. As E.B. White pointed out in The Elements of Style, famous sentences lose their power when they’re rearranged. Zinsser suggests reading everything out loud during the editing process.
Zinsser believes that style is original to every writer—he has even compared faking style to wearing a toupee. So why should writers try on other people’s styles in order to find their own? This isn’t as paradoxical as it seems. Writers shouldn’t try to copy everything that their idols do, but they should try to understand how their idols found their own voices. They can also borrow elements that they admire, just like a dancer might borrow another dancer’s move for their own choreography. Zinsser again encourages writers to approach their work from the reader’s perspective when rewriting—not only by reading it, but also by listening to it.
Themes
