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Chapter 6
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 asks when it’s appropriate for writers to use new words. He approves of useful new words like “hassle” and “freak,” but not useless ones like “notables” and “upcoming.” Why? There’s no definitive answer, because language is constantly changing. In the 1960s, the editors of The American Heritage Dictionary surveyed a panel of 104 experts, including Zinsser, to come up with “usage notes” for new words.
Zinsser’s list of new words might seem outdated to 21st century readers—after all, he sat on the dictionary panel more than half a century ago. “Hassle,” “freak,” and “upcoming” are all common today. But Zinsser anticipated this by pointing out that language constantly changes and there are no firm rules for usage. Each writer has to decide for themselves—but Zinsser argues that there’s still a difference between good and poor taste.
Themes
The panel rejected sloppy phrases like “healthwise” and “rather unique,” while approving new words like “dropout,” “rambunctious,” and “trek.” It tried to evaluate whether each word met a “real need” in the language. Still, there was always some disagreement, which shows that there are no objective laws of usage. Some writers rejected “O.K.” and “regime,” while others embraced them. They rejected words that now clearly do meet a need, like “TV personality.” They deemed some words, like “ain’t,” acceptable in speech but not in writing, and they ruled that other words are only acceptable in sarcastic writing.
The panel decided that new words and phrases are useful when they meet a “real need”—or when they serve a specific purpose that no other word can. Words that don’t meet a “real need” are either clutter, because they don’t mean anything, or jargon, because they mean the same thing as simple words that already exist. For instance, the “rather” in “rather unique” doesn’t mean anything, while it’s always possible to replace “healthwise” with an ordinary adjective that already exists.
Themes
In general, the panel leaned toward admitting new words but preserving traditional grammar rules. The language needs new words for technology, business, and social change. But there’s no reason to overturn traditional grammar rules (like “fewer” versus “less”) or accept common usage errors (like confusing “flaunt” with “flout”).
The panel’s goal was to keep the English language clear, rich, and precise. New words improve the language because they describe new phenomena, while traditional grammar rules strengthen the language by reducing ambiguity for readers.
Themes
New words continue to spread, so debates about usage are ongoing. In general, Zinsser favors accepting new usages while rejecting new jargon. For instance, “bottom line” and “printout” are helpful new usages that refer to specific things. But “prioritize” and “input” are jargon, because they’re used to replace perfectly good words that already exist.
Zinsser returns to his basic principle for all good writing: express ideas in the simplest possible way. By replacing perfectly good words with complicated jargon, writers make their readers work too hard for too little reward. Writers can usually communicate even the most complex ideas in simple, jargon-free language.
Themes
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