Installment #2 of "Follow John's highlighter"

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.