Ernest Hemingway (left) is a name that doesn’t come up often in any discussion of non-fiction.
That’s a shame.
His writing for various newspapers and magazines in the early part of the twentieth century is full of eyewitness accounts to some of the most exciting events during that period. He witnessed war and its aftermath. He saw Paris during the wild years between the world wars. He palled around with many of the era’s most interesting characters. And he wrote about it all.
Much of this early writing is gathered together in the volume "By-Line Ernest Hemingway: Selected Articles and Dispatches of Four Decades" from Charles Scribner’s Sons Publishing. It’s a great example of just how creative newspaper journalism can be. (There are even some good first person articles for those of us who enjoy that kind of thing!)
Another title worth reading is "Hemingway on Writing" compiled by Larry W. Phillips, also from Scribner’s. Although Hemingway maintained that it was bad luck for a writer to talk about writing, he spent a lot of time and energy doing just that.
In last Tuesday's class we had a good discussion around scientific writing and there were lot of good suggestions.
After the class I started browsing the net to find out who are the pros at scientific writing. It looks as though there are many, but one writer who grabbed my attention was Thomas Henry Huxley (left). I think the quote below from his essay "On the Study of Zoology" sums up the gist of scientific rhetoric:
"Therefore, the great business of the scientific teacher is, to imprint the fundamental, irrefragable facts of his science, not only by words upon the mind, but by sensible impressions upon the eye, and ear, and touch of the student, in so complete a manner, that every term used, or law enunciated, should afterwards call up vivid images of the particular structural, or other, facts which furnished the demonstration of the law, or the illustration of the term."
After class this week I was thinking about how to weave the different themes of my 800-word paper into a coherent, interesting, told-in-plain-language piece. I still haven't found an elegant way to do this, but in thinking about one of the themes -- how our educational systems often stifle creativity -- I remembered a great talk by British educator Ken Robinson that I heard on TED awhile back.
TED is a non-profit whose self proclaimed mission is "spreading ideas." TED began as a conference held each year in Long Beach, Calif., where folks get together to discuss new ideas in science, business, arts and global issues. Each presenter is allowed an eighteen minute (or less) speech on their topic. Beginning in 2007 the conference was recorded and made available on the World Wide Web.
Here's what TED has to say about TED:
"Over four days, 50 speakers each take an 18-minute slot, and there are many shorter pieces of content, including music, performance and comedy. There are no breakout groups. Everyone shares the same experience. It shouldn't work, but it does. It works because all of knowledge is connected. Every so often it makes sense to emerge from the trenches we dig for a living, and ascend to a 30,000-foot view, where we see, to our astonishment, an intricately interconnected whole."
I don't know how you all feel about the education you received -- for the most part I'm satisfied with mine (minus the gaps in proper writing skills) -- but I often dream about how much more we could achieve if we could find a way to allow for more encouragement of creativity in our curricula.
Ken Robinson said it much better than I ever could when he said, "If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything creative . . . we are educating people out of their creativity"
Please sit back and enjoy this short clip of Ken Robinson on TED. Apparently it is one of the most watched clips on their Website. And that says a lot. Consider yourself warned: TED is addictive.
When I feel the need for a big helping of writing inspiration, I turn to Mark Twain.
I appreciate his blend of clarity, succinctness and wicked humor. And it's fascinating how well his advice holds up more than a century later. Here's an example:
"I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English -- it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them -- then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice." - Letter to D. W. Bowser, 20 March 1880
Sounds very Zinsser like, doesn't it? In my search for Twain quotes on writing, I came across this book that I immediately added to my Amazon wish list: "Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing."
Amazon's review describes it as "kind of like an I Ching for writers: You throw the book open to wherever and some good advice or insight spills forth from this greatest of American authors: The same man, after all, who said he hadn't done 'a day's work in all my life. What I have done I have done because it has been play . . . ' A good attitude, indeed, to bring to your word processor, quill pen or typewriter."
Here's what Kitti sent me for the blog, but I confess that on the URL she gave me I have never been able to get past the sponsored links to track down the "less positive" spin on the "pros from Dover" that Kitti mentions. I had better luck on a British site, which may be the one Kitti was referring to later in her post. Let me know if you have better luck. Here's Kitti:
When writing my 700 word essay I found a great site entitled "phrasefinder," which provides the actual wording and meaning of commonly used phrases as well as their derivation and how their usage has been adapted over time.
The site also offers a subscription option to "phrasethesaurus" which is a British on-line publication.
I was interested in using the phrase "the pros from Dover" from MASH in my 700-word essay and was surprised to find the interpretation provided on the site had a less positive perspective than I remembered from watching the TV show years ago. I think Hawkeye would prefer my impressions.
As an aspiring writer I own my share of books on writing and the "how to" books on writing.
Someone mentioned earlier that the hard part is closing these books to open up the computer and start putting down our own words.
So true! It seems that I can always come up with a hundred excuses why I can't write for the day. One reason I'm taking this class is to gain the discipline that I believe must be established in order to become a better writer.
I've always been curious about people's writing habits and would love to learn more about how my classmates approach writing :
How do you make time for your writing?
Do you have a daily/weekly schedule with a set time?
How do you go from a lazy mood to a productive one in which you do the writing anyway?
Do you just make yourself sit down at the computer no matter what?
A professional editor recommended a book to me that I have found very useful.
It discusses both fiction and nonfiction writing including revision work. I highly recommend chapter 21 "Liposuctioning Flab," even as a first chapter to read.
The book is: "Stein on Writing" by Sol Stein (right).
I’d like to share a couple of simple practices that I think have benefited me as a budding writer.
The first practice is quite straightforward: keeping a journal. Anne Lamott (left) recommends doing so in her book about writing “Bird by Bird.” If you’re stuck for a topic, she advises that you try writing about something from your childhood, like family vacations.
I have tried to follow her advice. For the past six months, I have kept a journal, in which I make entries two or three times a week. I write about whatever comes into my mind. I haven’t written about vacations, but I have written about many other childhood experiences, as well as about many adult ones.
It is a good thing to get into the habit of writing this way. Like many other activities, writing is something that you improve at the more you do it. I find it easier to get started writing now than I did. Many times, my writing goes nowhere. But sometimes, it turns into a nice little story. One of my journal entries gave me the start for my personal essay for our writing course (parts of which were read in class Tuesday). Other entries have the potential for being turned into essays as well.
The second practice is to read an essay by a good writer and try to analyze what makes it a good essay. I got the idea from “The Situation and the Story,” by Vivian Gornick. Gornick (far left) takes personal essays and memoirs by different writers and analyzes their style and structure. It turned out that another book I had, “The Art of the Personal Essay,” edited by Philip Lopate, contained most of the essays Gornick analyzed. So I decided to read each of the essays Gornick analyzed and try to do my own analysis before I read hers. For example, I read James Baldwin’s essay “Notes of a Native Son,” and was struck by his combination of very concrete descriptions of what he saw as the effects of racism on his father with his discussion of racism in general. (Roy Peter Clark refers to this as the juxtaposition of the concrete and the abstract in this manner as working the “ladder of abstraction.”)
I’d also like to repeat a recommendation I made earlier in the course: “Follow the Story” by James B. Stewart (below). Stewart, a former Wall Street Journal editor, has written several successful nonfiction books, including “Den of Thieves,” about Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky and other 1980s Wall Street crooks, and “Blood Sport” about the Whitewater scandal. He devotes chapters to the following subjects:
He gives detailed examples of his approach to each of these areas. In the chapter on dialogue, Stewart discusses the dilemma faced by a nonfiction writer in deciding how far he or she can go to create a compelling but accurate reconstruction of a conversation – something we discussed on our class last week.
"The internet is there for snacking, grazing and tasting, not for the full, six-course feast that is nourishing narrative."
Agree with that statement or think Ben Macintyre (left) is selling the internet short? It's in an article I'd like you to read before Tuesday night. The headline sums up the point of the author:
"The internet is killing storytelling: Narratives are a staple of every culture the world over. They are disappearing in an online blizzard of tiny bytes of information." And if that's true, how should we, as writers, respond to the internet and its possible threat to the long-form narrative. Let's talk about that Tuesday night.
In his book "On Writing Well," he said, "Clear writing doesn’t happen by accident. It takes effort, focus and discipline. Clear writing reflects a clear mind; a clear mind requires a thorough understanding about the ideas you’re communicating . . .Managers at every level are prisoners of the notion that a simple style reflects a simple mind. Actually a simple style is the result of hard work and hard thinking; a muddled style reflects a muddled thinker or a person too arrogant, or too dumb, or too lazy to organize his thoughts.”
Touche!
Zinsser read right through me. I'll admit it: My mind is messy. And my apartment, my cooking and especially my writing are reflections of such messiness.
So if we're supposed to clear our thinking before we can write clearly, the question is How? I searched Zinsser's book for an answer but didn't find a satisfying one. I found this interesting web page instead. It explains simple exercises from Julia Cameron's book "The Artist's Way" on how to lighten your mind to create better content. I have found these to be very helpful and they don't take much time.
Julia Cameron, where have you been all this while? What a relief!
I was revising my article today and in just the first paragraph found a couple of things that Professor Saul had asked us to avoid. I had written:
"What’s it like to stand on Olympic ice, before the crowd and TV cameras, waiting for the music to begin? Pair skater and two-time Olympian Cindy Kaufmann Marshall knows. Quick and athletic at sixty, with striking blue eyes and a blonde skater’s ponytail, the three-time world bronze medalist offered to teach me about her career and the mental side of her sport."
Gag.
Strike the "striking" eyes and the "blonde" ponytail. He is right, I would not have put that much energy into describing her appearance if she were male. She still is, and looks like, a figure skater, and I did want to say that.
I also wrote "offered to teach me," which has that pesky "me." My next-try thought also had me in it, something like, "Cindy met me at Highland Ice in Shoreline, the rink where she and her brother Ron skated together."
I wouldn't put "I" or "me" in an academic paper, but I don't have a reporter's reflex to keep it out of other kinds of writing.
I read an article in the NYT dining section recently that went through some weird gyrations that I thought were intended to avoid the first person. The reporter observed a chef telling a worker to put on a belt, and described it like this, "While he remains a demanding boss — an unfortunate young counter worker at New York’s Bouchon Bakery recently received a personal lecture on the importance of wearing a belt — Mr. Keller says he has become a more patient leader with a greater appreciation for collaboration."
I didn't like the middle of that sentence. I would prefer, "While he remains a demanding boss — I watched him lecture an unfortunate young counter worker recently at New York's Bouchon Bakery on the importance of wearing a belt — Mr. Keller says he has become a more patient leader with a greater appreciation for collaboration."
But on second thought, the "I" does make the aside jump out of the middle of the sentence too much, and it could be written without it, like so: "He recently lectured an unfortunate young counter worker at New York's Bouchon Bakery on..." I think I like that best.
Why did the reporter put the "unfortunate counter worker" first? She must have wanted to emphasize the person being dressed down (and told to dress up) by his boss.
Now I'm doing something else that scares our professor: rambling.
Back onto the first person, do any of the rest of you have trouble avoiding it? Does it grate on you to see it outside of a personal essay? How about the descriptions of personal appearance? Do you describe a female's physical appearance more than you would a male's?
I had meant to put up links to The New York Times article we discussed last night, but never found time to do it. Along comes Mary to the rescue:
I thought some people in our class might want to read the article that we were talking about last night, so I'm sending the link and some accompanying information for you to pass on.
Back on November 2nd, John's blog post mentioned Zinsser's book and what Zinsser said about the beginning of a piece of writing:
"The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn't induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead."
I want to add to that something I found in "The Journalist's Craft: A Guide to Writing Better Stories" edited by Dennis Jackson and John Sweeney.
The newly aspiring writer is admonished against using false openings in the hope of snagging a reader: "Splicing a snazzy lead onto an otherwise conventional article strikes me as false advertising. The lead should establish the tone and voice of the story. Best not to begin your story with a cheap trick."
I am guilty of the afore-mentioned trick and then I struggle for continuity of tone for the remainder of the piece. I also struggle with finding a place to use scene-driven narrative as mentioned by Daniel James Brown. By the time I get the necessary facts in my article, my writing sounds more like a news article than a lyrical prose piece moving along scene by carefully chosen scene.
Is anyone else running up against this issue?
I guess it fits that a book by writers on how to become better writers would be well-written and enjoyable reading. After reading the section on writing narrative non-fiction, I was drawn into the section called, "These Things we Can Count On" with its list of "linguistic misdemeanors" committed by lazy writers.
That was so enjoyable to read that I moved into the chapter on finding good stories. By the time I was finished I had even read the pages entitled, "Business Writing that Screams "Read Me!"
No small feat for someone who summarily pulls the business sections out of the paper along with the flyers for hearing aids, truck sales and Rite-Aid coupons.
I have also picked up the "Lonely Planet's Guide to Travel Writing." which is also a good read. The problem with all these engrossing writing guides is putting aside the teaching manuals and opening up the keyboard to practice what they preach.
In that book she says, “Proper punctuation is both the sign and the cause of clear thinking. If it goes, the degree of intellectual impoverishment we face is unimaginable.”
I couldn’t have agreed more.
I think Winifred Watson and Julius M. Nolte meant the same thing when they wrote in their grammar book almost 70 years ago: “Sentences have stop and go signals: a capital letter at the beginning is a green light; a dash, comma, semicolon or colon is a yellow light to make readers hesitate; a period, question mark or exclamation point is a red light.”
It looks there are couple of used copies of this book available through Amazon, I might order one.
Lorraine shared the following with me in an e-mail, and I decided to make it the first of our student posts.
It's short (you can go longer if you want). It's about writing and gives Lorraine's reasons for why she found the webinar valuable. It also has a link to something you might consider (this is not an endorsement by me or the UW).
Here's what Lorraine had to say:
I recently attended Dr. Julie Miller’s webinar on “Get a Grip with Grammar.”
It cost $79 and was worth every penny. She delivers an interesting interactive webinar and provides numerous tips for remembering complicated grammar rules.
You may not need a refresher on grammar, but it's a good resource to keep in mind.
Some of you may think I'm belaboring this point since I made it when editing several of your profiles, but I had meant to get to Zinsser's Chapter 9 sooner than this. So please bear with me as we follow along with the highlighter.
Here's the first thing Zinsser (above) says in "The Lead and the Ending" and what I wrote at the top of some of your papers:
"The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn't induce the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead."
There couldn't be anything more important when writing for a purpose -- for pay, to entertain, to inform, whatever. If your readers stop reading, you have not achieved your purpose. Hook them with facts, with something they didn't know (called news in my old business), with humor, with mystery, but mostly with clear, strong, specific language, something that's easy to follow, easy to relate to.
You may move in "leisurely circles," as Zinsser says, toward your eventual point, but this is certainly true:
"Readers want to know -- very soon -- what's in it for them."
If this doesn't come in the first sentence, it should show up fairly soon. In journalism, it's known as the "nut graf," the paragraph that tells the nut of the story -- the reason why the readers might care and should keep reading. Editor, and readers, like to see it in the second or third graf.
So you get the reader's attention, tell them what you are up to and then start lacing together paragraphs that keep the reader going (see "Managing the Murky Middle" in an earlier post to this blog).
Do that until you get to where you reward your reader for persisting: A gift of an ending.
More on that, and "spiraling," too, at a later date.
See you Tuesday night at the front entrance to Odegaard Undergraduate Library. See map in a post below.
On a post below Rathnakar has a link to an excellent article by Kurt Vonnegut on writing personal essays. I read it and thought it worth getting out in the open more so you don't miss it.
Plus, I think that Kurt Vonnegut is one of the best, especially his early stuff. "Slaughterhouse Five" is always on my list of my 10 most favorite books.
Not sure if this one is worth bringing out from hiding, but Lorraine suggested I share it with the class since she claims it has saved her hours of research. The question was: What's the style when you want to credit a YouTube video in a presentation, etc.
I didn't know and in trying to find the answer I found some good web sites with information on what is copyrighted on YouTube, what laws apply and, finally, what a citation should look like. Here's what I told Lorraine:
This one is from the University of Maine and is one of the best I have seen. It also includes a section on "Citation styles," although none appear to refer specifically to video:
Andrew Krueger referred to the visit from Kristi Heim and Kathleen Triesch Saul as an "insightful dialogue," which I thought it was and I hope the rest of you agree. We covered a lot of ground that night on reporting, writing, editing and many things related. Hope you found it valuable.
And thanks, of course, to Kristi and Kathy (if you're looking in on us) for taking the time to prepare and to visit us.
Mary mentioned another article that appeared in the Pacific Northwest magazine recently about knife sharpening, and on the way home that night, Kathy said, "You know, that's an informed personal essay as well."
So I went back and looked at the article by Matthew Amster-Burton and found it an excellent example of how personal experience and research can blend together to entertain and inform. I learned something about knives, how to sharpen them, how much it costs to have someone sharpen them for me, a good shop for knife sharpening and a web forum where I can learn more -- all wrapped into Matthew's sometimes bloody experience with honing an edge.
The piece is 957 words -- not much longer than your 700-word assignment.
"Writing is learned by imitation," says Zinsser in Chapter 6. This would not be a bad piece to imitate.
Something really needs to be said about the importance of the first sentence in any piece of writing -- and that's what I was going to go on about tonight. Until a friend on Facebook posted this blog entry.
Ever had writer's block? Here's a look at what good can come of it and how to get through it.
And take another look at Chapter Nine in "On Writing Well" -- that's the chapter on the beginning and the end.
I was reading Susan's profile of Leesa and I thought to myself: This is just like out of the book -- kickoff paragraphs to introduce portions of the story, material that seems to follow an interior outline and supports the kickoff graf, etc. Of course, then my weary old mind could not remember the book, and I had to waste a half hour digging through book shelves trying to find those references.
I finally did. It's in "The Journalist's Craft: A Guide to Writing Better Stories" in an article by Carl Sessions Stepp entitled "Managing the Murky Middle." It's online and it's worth reading. Have a look.
And I wanted to cite some huge blunder by Susan here to keep her from getting a big head . . . I will as soon as I find one.
Tuesday night you will let the class know what you are thinking about doing for your 800-word final project in this class. Don't charge into selecting your project without taking some time to review Chapter 6 in "On Writing Well."
Let me start my highlighting of that chapter by turning to the back of it where we find this not-to-be-ignored advice:
"Every writing project must be reduced before you start to write.
"Therefore think small. Decide what corner of your subject you're going to bite off, and be content to cover it well and stop. . .
"As for what point you want to make, every successful piece of nonfiction should leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn't have before."
Remember the information I passed along in the first class from Jim Simon, the Metro editor at The Seattle Times:
"Find a story, not an issue. Use small, personal stories to illustrate a big problem or issue."
Don't try to explain the world's present financial situation in 800 words. You might tell your readers what has happened to one investor who had money tied up in overseas markets and what effect that has had on his life.
Don't take on the pros and/or cons of big agribusiness vs. local food sources in 800 words. Find a local grower who is farming next to a corporate farm and tell what's alike and what's different between the operations.
Look at the questions Zinsser says to ask yourself before you start:
"In what capacity am I going to address the reader? (Reporter? Provider of information? Average man or woman?) What pronoun and tense am I going to use? What style (Impersonal reportorial? Personal but formal? Personal and casual?) What attitude am I going to take toward the material? (Involved? Detached? Judgmental? Ironic? Amused?) How much do I want to cover? What one point do I want to make?"
Remember what I said: Less is more. Build a piece of writing that doesn't wander, that has a beginning, a middle and an end, and above all has a discernible point.
I once worked with a copy editor who changed a word after consulting Roget's Thesaurus, and a city council went from "warning" citizens to "admonishing" them.
If that copy editor had looked up those words in a dictionary, we might not have received the phone complaints the next day from council members.
"to warn: to tell of a danger, coming evil, misfortune, etc.; to put on guard against a person or thing."
"to admonish: 1. to warn; caution against specific faults. 2. to reprove with mildness."
It's that second meaning of admonish that caused the trouble as it had the council scolding citizens instead of directing them away from some danger. There's a shade of meaning there that you can't get from using a thesaurus alone.
Zinsser's warning to never use a thesaurus without a follow-up visit to the dictionary is worth heeding. And I like his statement at the beginning of Chapter 6:
"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."
You won't develop that respect through quick visits to a thesaurus. Get a good dictionary and look up words. Or use the excellent and easy-to-use dictionaries online.
You also need to read, read, read and listen to great writers. As Zinsser says, "Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters. Writing is learned by imitation." I just started "The Forever War" by Dexter Filkins, New York Times correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Alexandre Dumas is lined up on the reading shelf right behind him. A mix of new and old, non-fiction and fiction.
I write this not to appear as some erudite egotist but to get a discussion going. What are you reading, or what were you reading before I loaded you down with assignments for the class? Give us your recommendations.
In writing, style is not extraneous ornamentation, and the rule to be obeyed when it appears in your writing is this: "Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing . . . delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings."
Orwell and Tuchman have their versions of this, and I especially like Tuchman's (thanks again, Andy): "The historian is continually being beguiled down fascinating byways and sidetracks. But the art of writing – the test of the artist – is to resist beguilement and cleave to the subject.”
My wife, the magazine editor, put it this way (in a handout you'll be getting this quarter):
Kill your babies: Reporters work hard gathering information, and often this spawns paragraphs in stories that reporters find too fascinating to leave out. But practice birth control: If the stuff seems extraneous, wanders from the main topic, makes you want to move on to something else, kill it.
Later in his book, Zinsser gives a good rule of thumb on this: Make sure that everything in your writing is doing work. If it's not, get rid of it.
When Andy brought up Barbara Tuchman (at right) in his comment on the George Orwell essay, it reminded me of my favorite observation by Tuchman.
I have used it in presentations to the public, who often complain that journalists focus only on the bad news. That's a danger in all that is recorded, Tuchman says, whether it be in the indispensable documents used by historians or in present-day newspapers. "The fact of being on the record," Tuchman says, "makes (disaster) appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic . . ."
Want proof of that? Take a look at our own times, Tuchman says:
"After absorbing the news of today, one expects to face a world consisting entirely of strikes, crimes, power failures, broken water mains, stalled trains, school shutdowns, muggers, drug addicts, neo-Nazis, and rapists. The fact is that one can come home in the evening -- on a lucky day -- without having encountered more than one or two of there phenomena."
Not sure that ever convinced the public, but at least it showed that the problem wasn't unique to my paper.
Be sure to read Andy's comments -- and add any of your own.
George Orwell is one of my favorite authors and I think his essay "Politics and the English Language" is a highlight of his work. I'm not sure how I overlooked giving it as a reading assignment for this class.
Finding the mention of it in "On Writing Well" confirmed my favorable opinion of Zinsser.
If you don't read the Orwell essay, let me call to your attention to these words of advice from it:
"(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
"(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.
"(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
"(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.
"(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
"(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous."
I'm out of town until Monday night when I will have my highlighter out again.
I said in class on Tuesday that I believed that "less is more." That's rooted in my journalism background, but what it means is that I think the strongest writing is clear, pared down to the essentials, that every word, phrase and sentence in a piece of non-fiction writing is "doing work," as Zinsser puts it.
That doesn't mean that I can't appreciate writing with more words, more complex sentences, vocabulary and phrasing. But I mostly like that in fiction. I read non-fiction because I want to learn about something, and I don't want the writing to get in the way of the subject I am trying to learn.
In fiction, I'm more likely to take enjoyment in the complexity of language, the nuances and the hoops the author has me jump through.
So is there no room for any of this in non-fiction? There's room, there's creativity, there are hoops to take the reader through -- but it all has to be done with the purpose of helping the reader understand the subject at hand. In my opinion.
And that's why I highlighted this in the first part of "On Writing Well:"
". . . the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components."
"Open Walden to any page and you will find a man saying in a plain and orderly way what is on his mind."
"Clear thinking becomes clear writing."
"If the reader is lost, it's usually because the writer hasn't been careful enough . . . 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."
THAT LAST one -- about logical sequencing -- is a huge stumbling block for many writers. It's easy to supply the word, link, explanation in your own head and think you've done the same down there on the computer screen. Read your writing for continuity.
Back to Zinsser and some words on finding your focus:
"Writers 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."
There is a link to a very good PowerPoint presentation on clarity in writing in the post to this blog on Nov. 24, 2008. I highly recommend it to your attention.
Agree with what I found worth highlighting in Zinsser's book? You don't have to. Leave a comment or let us know what you highlighted.
I'll be doing this throughout the quarter, noting what I have highlighted as I read some of the assignments for the class. This is not from an assigned reading, but I thought you might like to have what I read to you last night from "The Craft of Interviewing" by John Brady (1976, Vantage Books, New York).
So here goes:
"Interviewing is the modest, immediate science of gaining trust, then gaining information. . .
"Above all: ask. Pursue the blind alleys; voice your human -- as well as professional -- curiosities. Ask intriguing, innumerable questions, with enthusiam and only civil restraint. In the end, interviewing is less a technique than an instinct. An interview is simply a lively and thoughtful conversation. The more life and thought you invest in your questions, the more answers you will get."
". . . a good interview is sensibly structured. It begins with easy, rather mechanical questions; shifts to knottier, more thoughtful questions; moves back out with mechanical questions (favorite writers, future projects) and closes with a query that offers a ring of finality (one effective question: how would you like to be remembered?). If the interview has logical structure -- a sense of beginning, middle and end -- it will have emotional structure as well.
"The interview outline need not be dictatorial, or detailed, or even committed to paper. It can be a single, tacit purpose. In fact, the simpler it is, the better. It is only a device to give the interviewer confidence, and his questions, momentum. It gives the interviewer the reins of the interview."
And I hope I stressed enough that you need to do as much research as possible before the interview on the person you are interviewing. Don't be like this reporter:
". . . When Vivien Leigh arrived in Atlanta for the premiere of the reissue of Gone With the Wind, a reporter asked her what part she had played in the film. Scarlett informed the writer that she did not care to be interviewed by such an ignoramus."
Beyond the required books I have listed in the syllabus, I will be teaching from these books. You are not required to have them, but I have found them to be helpful on different aspects of writing and reporting.
The final arbiter in any disputes that might arise on grammar in this class will be:
Garner's Modern American Usage, Bryan A. Garner, 2003, Oxford University Press, New York
The stylebook I will use is:
Associated Press Stylebook 2007, Norm Goldstein, editor, 2007, The Associated Press, New York
Advice on interviewing comes from this book:
The Craft of Inverviewing, John Brady, 1976, Vintage Books, New York
Much of what I have to say about journalism (beyond my own experience) will come from these books:
The Journalist's Craft: A Guide to Writing Better Stories, Dennis Jackson and John Sweeney, editors, 2002, Allworth Press, New York
Inside Reporting : A Practical Guide to the Craft of Journalism, Tim Harrower, 2007, McGraw Hill, Boston
On style, diction, rhythm and just plain wise words on writing in general, I go to:
The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White, 1972, Macmillan Publishing, New York
The New Oxford Guide to Writing, Thomas S. Kane, 1988, Oxford University Press, New York
Economical Writing, Deirdre N. McCloskey, 2009, Waveland Press, Long Grove, Ill.
Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide, Mark Kramer and Wendy Call, editors, 2007, Penguin Group, New York
My quick reference books on grammar are:
Plain English Handbook: A Complete Guide to Good English, J. Martin Walsh and Anna Kathleen Walsh, 1959, McCormick-Mathers Publishing, Wichita, Kan.
Working with Words: A Handbook for Media Writers and Editors, Brian S. Brooks, James L/ Pinson and Jean Gaddy Wilson, 2006, Bedford/St. Martin's, Boston
For questions on punctuation, I turn to the section in the back of the AP Stylebook, but a more entertaining book on punctuation is:
Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, Lynne Truss, 2003, Gotham Books, New York
And last but not least, this is where I go for help on questions about math:
Math Tools for Journalists,Kathleen Woodruff Kickham, 2003, Marion Street Press, Oak Park, Ill.
Jim Molnar teaches the condensed version of this non-fiction writing course and has compiled an amazingly complete list of books about writing. Here it is:
Writing for Story:Craft Secrets of Dramatic Nonfiction, by Jon Franklin; Plume Reprint Edition, 1994, paperback.ISBN: 0-45227-295-5
The Studs Terkel Reader: My American Century, by Studs Terkel, with Calvin Trillin (Forward) and Robert Coles (Introduction); New Press, 2007, paperback. ISBN: 1595581774
Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present, by Lex Williford and Michael Martone (eds.); Touchstone, 2007, paperback. ISBN: 1416531742.
The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing, by Alice LaPlante; W.W. Norton & Company, 2007, hardcover. ISBN: 0393061647.
Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer, by Roy Peter Clark; Little, Brown and Company, 2008, paperback. ISBN: 0316014990
Recommended Texts:
Books on Craft
1.On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, by William K. Zinsser; Collins, 2006, paperback.ISBN: 0-06089-154-8
2.Tell it Slant:Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction, by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola; McGraw-Hill Humanities, 2003, paperback.ISBN:0-07251-278-4
3.Writing True:The Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction, by Sondra Perl and Mimi Schwartz; Houghton Mifflin, 2006, paperback. ISBN: 0-618-37075-7
4.The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers of/on Creative Nonfiction, by Robert L. Root, Jr., and Michael Steinberg; fourth edition, 2007, paperback. ISBN: 0-321-43484-6
5.Writing Creative Nonfiction:Instruction and Insights from Teachers of The Associated Writing Programs, by Carolyn Forche and Phillip Gerard (eds.); Writers Digest Books, 2001, paperback.ISBN:1-88491-050-5
6.The Art of Creative Nonfiction: Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality, by Lee Gutkind; John Wiley & Sons, 1997, paperback. ISBN: 0-471-11356-5
7.The Truth of the Matter: Art and Craft in Creative Nonfiction, by Dinty W. Moore; Pearson Longman, 2007, paperback. ISBN:0-32127-761-9
8.Writing With Style:Conversations on the Art of Writing, 2ndedition, by John R. Trimble;Prentice Hall, 2000, paperback.ISBN: 0130257133
9.The Passionate, Accurate Story: Making Your Heart’s Truth into Literature, by Carol Bly; Milkweed Editions, paperback. 1990.ISBN: 0-91594-353-1
10.The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present, by Phillip Lopate; Anchor, 1997, paperback. ISBN: 0-38542-339-X
11.The Situation and the Story: The Art of Personal Narrative, by Vivian Gornick; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001, paperback. ISBN: 0-37452-858-6
12.Intimate Journalism: The Art and Craft of Reporting Everyday Life, by Walt Harrington; Sage Publications Inc., 1997, paperback. ISBN: 0761905871
13.Keep It Real:Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction, by Lee Gutkind (ed.); W.W. Norton & Company, 2009, paperback.ISBN: 0393330982
14.Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir, by William Zinsser (ed.); Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin, 1998, paperback. ISBN: 0-39590-150-2
15.Stein on Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies, by Sol Stein; St. Martin’s Griffin, 2000, paperback. ISBN: 0-31225-421-0
16.Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing, by Claire Kehrwald Cook; Houghton Mifflin, Modern Language Association series, 1985, paperback. ISBN: 0-395-39391-4
17.A Writer’s Workbook: Daily Exercises for the Writer’s Life, by Caroline Sharp; St. Martin’s Griffin 2002, paperback. ISBN:0-31228-621-X
18.A Manual of Writer’s Tricks, by David L. Carroll; Marlowe & Company, 1995, paperback. ISBN: 1-56924-877-X
19.The First Five Pages:A Writer’s Guide to Staying off the Rejection Pile, by Noah Lukeman; Fireside, 2000, paperback.ISBN: 0-68485-743-X
20.The Anatomy of a Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller, by John Truby; Faber & Faber, 2008, paperback. ISBN: 0865479933
21.Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, by Bret Anthony Johnston (ed.);Random House, 2008, paperback.ISBN: 0812975480
22.Now Write:Fiction Writing Exercises From Today’s Best Writers & Teachers, by Sherry Ellis (ed.); Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2006, paperback. ISBN: 1585425222
23.The Writer’s Idea Book:How to Develop Great Ideas for Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Screenplays, by Jack Heffron; Writers Digest Books, 2000, paperback.ISBN: 158297179X
24.How to Write Funny:Add Humor to Every Kind of Writing, by John B. Kachuba (ed.), Writers Digest Books, 2001, paperback.ISBN: 1582970548
25.The Craft of Research, Third Edition, by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams; University of Chicago Press, 2008, paperback.ISBN: 0226065669
Books on Practice
26.Fingerpainting on the Moon:Writing and Creativity as a Path to Freedom, by Peter Levitt; Harmony, 2003, hardcover.ISBN:0-60961-048-1
27.A Writer’s Time: Making the Time to Write, by Kenneth Atchity; W.W. Norton & Company, Revised and Expanded Edition, 1995, paperback.ISBN: 0-39331-263-1
28.The Triggering Town:Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing, by Richard Hugo; W.W. Norton & Company, Reissue Edition, 1992, paperback.ISBN: 0-39330-933-9
29.You Must Revise Your Life, by William Stafford; University of Michigan Press, 1987, paperback. ISBN: 0-47206-371-5
30.Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them, by Francine Prose; Harper Collins, 2006, hardback. ISBN: 0-06077-704-4
31.The Unquiet Grave: A Word Circle by Palinurus, by Cyril Connolly; Persea Books, Reprint Edition, 2005, paperback. ISBN: 0-89255-058-9
32.Turning the Wheel: Essays on Buddhism and Writing, by Charles Johnson; Scribner, 2003, hardback. ISBN: 0-74324-324-7
33.The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain, by Alice W. Flaherty; Houghton Mifflin, 2004, paperback. ISBN: 0-61823-065-3
34.Writing for Your Life: A Guide and Companion to the Inner Worlds, by Deena Metzger; Harper San Francisco, 1992, paperback. ISBN: 0-06250-612-9
35.The Eleventh Draft: Craft and the Writing Life from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, by Frank Conroy (ed.); Harper Collins, 1999, hardback. ISBN: 0-06273-639-6
36.The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers, by Betsy Lerner; Riverhead Books, 2000, paperback. ISBN: 1-57322-152-X
37.Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer, by Bruce Holland Rogers; Invisible Cities Press, 2002, paperback. ISBN: 1-91322-917-1
38.Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity, by Ray Bradbury;Joshua Odell Editions, expanded edition, 1993, paperback. ISBN: 1-87774-109-4
39.On Writing, by Stephen King; Pocket, 2002, paperback. ISBN: 0-74345-596-7
40.Conversations with Robert Gaves, by Frank L. Kersnowski (ed.); University Press of Mississippi, Literary Conversations Series, 1989, paperback. ISBN: 0-87805-413-8
41.The Art of Writing: Lu Chi’s Wen Fu, by Sam Hamill (trans.); Milkweed Editions, 2000, paperback. ISBN: 1-57131-412-1
42.Rules of Thumb: 73 Authors Reveal Their Fiction Writing Fixations, by Michael Martone and Susan Neville (eds.);Writers Digest Books, 2006, hardcover.ISBN: 1582973911
Books on Grammar, Syntax, and Style
43.The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition, by Willam Strunk Jr. and E.B. White; Longman, 1999, paperback. ISBN: 0-20530-902-X
44.The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, Fully Revised and Updated, by Norm Goldstein; Perseus Books Group, 2006, paperback.USBN: 0-46500-489-X
45.Writing Handbook, Second Edition, by Bernard J. Streicher, S.J.; Michael P. Kammer, S.J.; and Charles W. Mulligan, S.J.; Loyola Press, 1996, hardcover. ISBN: 0829409106
46.Sin and Syntax:How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose, by Constance Hale; Broadway Books, 2001, paperback;. ISBN: 0-76790-309-9
47.Common Errors in English Usage, 2nd edition, by Paul Brians; William, James & Co., 2009, paperback.ISBN: 1590282078
48.Words on Words: The Columbia Dictionary for Writers, by John B. Bremner; MJF Books, 1998,hardcover. ISBN: 1-56731-282-9
49.The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon; Pantheon Books, 1993, hardcover. ISBN: 0-67941-860-1
50.The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon,; Houghton Mifflin, reprint edition, 2003, paperback. ISBN: 0-61838-201-1
51.Woe is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English, by Patricia T. O’Connor; Riverhead Books, 2004, paperback. ISBN: 1-59448-006-0
52.Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer’s Guide to Getting It Right, by Bill Bryson; Broadway, 2004, paperback. ISBN: 0767910435
53.Style, an Anti-Textbook, Second Edition, Revised, by Richard A Lanham; Paul Dry Books, 2007, paperback. ISBN: 1589880323
54.Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style by Virginia Tufte; Graphics Press, 2006, paperback.ISBN: 0961392185
Anthologies, Collections, and Essays
55.In Fact:The Best of Creative Nonfiction, by Lee Gutkind (ed.); W.W. Norton and Company, 2004, paperback.ISBN: 0-39332-665-9
56.The Best Creative Nonfiction, by Lee Gutkind (ed.), two volumes, paperback; W,W. Norton & Company. Vol. 1, 2007; ISBN: 0393330036. Vol. 2, 2008: ISBN: 0393330249
57.The Norton Book of Personal Essays, by Joseph Epstein (ed.); W.W. Norton & Company, 1997, hardcover.ISBN; 0-39303-654-5
58.Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, by Studs Terkel; New Press, 1997, paperback. ISBN: 1565843428
59.Hard Times:An Oral History of the Great Depression, by Studs Terkel; W.W. Norton & Company, 2000, paperback. ISBN: 1565846567
60.Voices of Our Time:Five Decades of Studs Terkel Interviews, by Studs Terkel; Highbridge Audio, Unabridged Edition, 2005, audio cd set. ISBN: 156511969X
61.John McPhee Reader, by John McPhee, William L. Howarth (ed.); Farrar Straus Giroux, 1982, paperback. ISBN: 0-37451-719-3
62.The Second John McPhee Reader, by John McPhee, Patricia Strachan, David Remnick; Farrar Straus Giroux, 1996, paperback.ISBN:0-37452-463-7
63.The Braindead Megaphone: Essays, by George Saunders; Rverhead Trade, 2007, paperback. ISBN: 159448256X
64.Life Stories:Profiles from The New Yorker, by David Remnick; Modern Library, 2001, paperback.ISBN: 0-37575-751-1
65.The Next American Essay, by John D’Agata (ed.);Graywolf Press, 2003, paperback.ISBN: 1555973752
66.The Best American Essays of the Century, by Joyce Carol Oates and Robert Atwan (eds.); Houghton Mifflin reprint edition, 2001, paperback. ISBN: 0-618-15587-2
67.The Best American … Series published by Houghton Mifflin.See especially Essays (2007) and Magazine Writing (2006 and 2007) and Science and Nature Writing and Travel Writing.
68.In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction, by Judith Kitchen and Mary Paumier Jones (eds.); W.W. Norton & Co., 1996, paperback. ISBN: 0-39303-960-9
69.The Size of Thoughts: Essays and Other Lumber, by Nicholson Baker; Vintage Books, 1997, paperback. ISBN: 0-67977-624-9
70.Best Newspaper Writing, byAly Colon (ed.); The Poynter Institute, 2006-2007 edition (and subsequent), paperback. ISBN:0-87289-296-4. (Also other years and editions.)
71.Principal Products of Portugal: Prose Pieces, by Donald Hall; Beacon Press, 1996, paperback.ISBN: 0-0706-203-6
72.Having Everything Right: Essays of Place, by Kim R. Stafford, Sasquatch Books, 1997, paperback. ISBN: 1-57061-097-5
73.Crossing Open Ground, by Barry Lopez;Vintage, reprint edition, 1989, paperback. ISBN: 0-67972-183-5
74.About This Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory, by Barry Lopez; The Harvill Press, 1999, paperback. ISBN: 1-86046-565-X
75.The Enthusiasms of Robertson Davies, by Robertson Davies and Judith Skelton Grant (ed.); Penguin, reprint edition, 1991, paperback. ISBN: 0-14012-659-7
76.When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by David Sedaris; Back Bay Books, 2009, paperback.ISBN: 0316154687
77.The Disappointment Artist:Essays, by Jonathan Lethem; Vintage, 2006, paperback.ISBN: 1400076811
78.Only Love Can Break Your Heart, by David Samuels; New Press, 2008, hardcover. ISBN: 1595581871
79.The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel, by James Wood; Picador, 2005, paperback.ISBN: 0312424604
80.A Walk in the Woods:Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, by Bill Bryson; Anchor, 2nd ed., 2006, paperback.ISBN: 0307279464
81.The Insanity Defense:The Complete Prose, by Woody Allen; Random House, 2007, paperback.ISBN: 0812978110
82.Don’t Get Too Comfortable: The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems, by David Rakoff; Broadway Books, 2005, paperback. ISBN: 0767916034
83.Fraud:Essays, by David Rakoff; Anchor, 2002, paperback.ISBN: 0767906314
84.The Areas pf My Expertise, by John Hodgman;Eiverhead Trade, 2006, paperback. ISBN: 1594482225
85.A Collection of Essays, by George Orwell; Mariner Books, 1970, paperback. ISBN: 0156186004
86.Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays, by George Orwell (George Packer, ed.);Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008, paperback.ISBN: 0151013616
87.The Orwell Reader:Fiction, Essays, and Reportage, by George Orwell; Mariner Books, 1961, paperback.ISBN: 0156701766
Ernest Hemingway (left) is a name that doesn’t come up often in any discussion of non-fiction. 
emingway: Selected Articles and Dispatches of Four Decades" from Charles Scribner’s Sons Publishing. It’s a great example of just how creative newspaper journalism can be. (There are even some good first person articles for those of us who enjoy that kind of thing!)
