Alphonsus Chong's Personal Wiki

• “You have to strip down your writing before you can build it back up” carpentry metaphor {sounds like OCS training}
• “A writer is obviously at his most natural and relaxed when he writes in the first person”
• “Sell yourself, and your subject will exert its own appeal”
• “Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it.”

• “Hassle” and “Freak” OK but “notables” and “greats” not
• “the pen must at length comply with the tongue” Samuel Johnson
• “In general we turned out to be liberal in accepting new words and phrases, but conservative in grammar” p.40
• “These may seem like picayune distinctions. They're not. They are signals to the reader that you are sensitive to the many shadings of usage.”

• 1976
• William Zinsser

• use active verbs
  • Hemingway, Thurber, Thoreau, KJV, Shakespeare, Lincoln
  • “Joe hit him” vs “He was hit by Joe”
• Most adverbs are unecessary e.g. “The radio blared loudly”
• Most adjectives are unnecessary (fr elsewhere: quality over extent)
• Limit qualifiers e.g. “a bit”, “very”
• Keep paragraphs short
• “Your subconscious mind does more writing than you think”
• Use verbs instead of concept nouns e.g. reaction, cynicism
• abolish “The human condition”
• avoid concept nouns
  • “The common reaction is incredulous laughter” … “most people just laugh with disbelief”

Science

• Sequence is key - start with reader knows nothing –> “inverted pyramid” - Chimpanzee ticktactoe

• Humor - using it to deliver a serious point “Hairdresser” example
• “Humor is the secret weapon of the non-fiction writer. It is secret because so few writers realize that it is often their best tool – and sometimes their only tool – for making an important point” p.134

• 2017-04-26 Created
• 2020-08-28 Transcribed from index card to dokuwiki

On Writing Well. William Zinnser

• 2017-06-01 Created on index card
• 2020-08-10 transcribed to dokuwiki with minor edits