Personal Reaction to Class Activity and William Zinsser's "Writing Good English"
What is your personal reaction to what you learned about writing from your peers and from William Zinsser? Did anything surprise or puzzle you? Do you strongly agree or disagree with any suggestion? Explain why. Answer in a paragraph. Write no fewer than 150 words and no more than 200.
Due in time for Wednesday's class. Bring a copy, word processed and double spaced, please.
27 comments:
As far as Zinsser’s suggestions go, no doubt you have guessed that I chose the article because I personally agree with him. It’s interesting to note that, within our communities, there are two such radically different styles: the Latin-filled writing that seems to intentionally confuse us, and the Anglo Saxon writing used so effectively by both President Obama and the Bible. But most importantly for me are a few of the things he says: that there are “words that are in our bones”; that being yourself is the best way to represent your humanity; that “simple is good.” I hope my students will heed Zinsser’s advice and, as a result, become better (and more human) writers.—115 words
Note that my response is of necessity shorter than your own will be since I was not at our class last Wednesday. I will be very interested in hearing about your discussion that day and the kinds of rules you wrote for writing well. See you this week.
I never heard about William Zinsser before Wednesday. He gave me some interesting principals about writing to ponder. For the question: what is good writing, Zinsser stressed how easy it is, if we keep in mind these suggestions: be simple, short, clear, and use active verbs. The groups in our class agree that, if we use a perfect grammar, choose the correct words, and make the composition interesting to the readers, it will be a piece of good writing. In addition our group said, “A good reader makes a good writer”. Comparing Mr Zinsser’s rules with ours, we clearly understand he is the master and we are the students. I strongly agree with William Zinsser when he says, “The hard part of writing isn’t the writing; it’s the thinking”. Thinking is my crucial point, especially to be simple and this comes from my Latin background, very hard to refrain. I was puzzled to discover who my enemy for good English writing is. What a change of perspective! I found remarkable the way William Zinsser studies, analyses, and circumvents the problems to prevent us from embroidering with fancy words and just makes us all remember: simple is good.
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William Zinsser's talk on good writing was both similar and very surprising to me in its focus. Most of the similarities between his opinion and that of the class at large were ideas that Zinsser used without specifically stating them. Most obviously was that most of the class saw the ability to hold the readers interest as worthy of being a rule. The differences however were like elephants and mice. I have always tried to use large words to improve my writing. Zissner's main point of using small, action words to drive pieces of writing forward was something that I had never considered, though its effect it glaringly obvious in how interesting the transcript was to read. With the rules that were talked about in class only one stood out to me. That was the opinion that reading many books makes you a good writer. This to me is clearly not true because I have been a fanatic reader since I was a child and still can not write very well. I hope that the attempt to put Zinsser's advice into practice will help my writing improve as soon as possible.
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Writing Good English was an interesting topic last Wednesday. Our class shared some writing tips such as correct grammar, transitional words, and simple phases. In addition, Matin in our group said, “You can’t tell what is good writing unless you start reading it.” I agree with Matin. After I finish my writing, I like to reread before handing it into the teacher. If I don’t like it, neither a reader would enjoy it .Also, the article “A Talk By William Zinsser” was very useful. Zinsser answered the puzzle in my mind of “fancy words.” I tried to use them, and I got lower marks. Now, I know why! While I tried hard to concentrate in using “fancy words”, at the same time I lost three of the four principles of good English wring. I lost “Clarity”, “Simplicity”, and “Brevity”. But I have one thing in common with the author –“Humanity”. I often use it in my writing. I looked back at my old assignments, and most of my higher marks were when I wrote from my "heart". I write with "Honesty". I still need to figure out how to put words and sentences together. As William Zinsser said, “We all need models.”
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A Talk By William Zinsser was an eye opening short story about writing good English. I have always thought, using fancy words will make the writing look professional, formal and smart. After reading this short story, I realized that writing good English includes simplicity, clarity, brevity and humanity. My way of thinking about writing good English was different than I read in the short story. It was something new that I learned about principles of good writing. I strongly agree with William Zinsser’s short story stating the principles of writing good English. A good writing should not be pretentious, if so, then it will be perceived that way. I learned that using Active verbs give momentum to a sentence and push it forward, while Passive verbs are longer, weaker and are not exact. The way William Zinsser described a good writing is simple, the writing should be clear and simple to seem realistic. From examining various aspects, William Zinsser is a profession in writing good English and I definitely recommend his story for others.
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Mateen Aminie
Every group in the class had to make rules for good writing which could be summarized into six: grammar and structure, word choice, creativity, proofreading, stating facts and examples, and staying on topic. My group had similar rules but one: a good writing needs to have layers of meaning. At first I thought that good writing needs to have various meanings hidden behind its words like poetry. However, I was wrong; to have layers of meaning is to have ideas connected with each other. Furthermore,the article by William Zinsser wasn't how I had expected it to be. I had expected similar things to what the class and my group had discussed. He said that good writings doesn't need the use of long words. Instead the use of short imaginative words. It needs to have many active words but not passive, since active words lighten up the writing. It needs to have our own style of writing since it gives a bit of life into it as he stated "be yourself". These are the points that I found useful and hope to follow them in my writings.
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After reading Zinsser's advice to writers, I was surprised that his advice coincided with mine. I am from China. I am interested to discuss that, in China, good writing means: the wise writing that seems to give people an opportunity to wake up, and the ornate writing which fills with poetic and picturesque beauty. My group agrees that, no matter in which country, good writing is clear and simple. It includes: your own clear ideas and simple expressions. It is just the principal reason for me to agree with Zinsser who describes the problem of writing that, "paralyzes students is not how to write; it's how to organize what they are writing." But most importantly for me are the suggestions he makes: that " remember: how you are writing is how you define yourself to people who meet you only through your writing"; that "One thought per sentence"; that "simple is good." I hope I will heed Zinsser's advice and, in the future,become a writer of personality.
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Delshad Amini
February 25, 2014
"Short is always better than long." . The eagle's life is really shorter than the crow's life, but
the eagle is the kings of the sky! The short sentences are eagles. In my opinion, a majority
of people know what they have to do, but they don't. When we were talking about a good
writing in our group, we were unanimous in the Zinsser's rules. On the other hand , when we
remembered our writings, they were totally different with our agreement. For instance, we
used the long sentences with a lot of complicated words. Remembering of a short sentence is
much easier than a long one.The current age is the modern age. People's dialogues are
changed to the shorter sentences .We don't have enough time to use or write
long ,ornate ,complicated sentences.The long sentences are forgettable. We usually can
remember the short one like slogans. They are short and meaningful. We can share
them.We can use them in our speeches. The real writing is the reflection of our real life, and
the real life is really short without any decoration. "Short is always better than long" , and
brevity is always beter than redundancy. As Shakespeare said,"Brevity is the soul of wit.".
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Blog Homework
After reading William Zinsser article on "Good Writing," I noticed we had some similar attributes, but was amazed with how much I didn't know. In class last Wednesday we did group discussion on what we thought would make a good writer. The most common ones we found were good grammar, and interesting ideas to keep the readers interest. In this article that we read it was really interesting to learn that is better to use active words, be simple, make it clear and short. I was taught to make sure it's long and that you're explaining in large amounts of detail. Now that I have found some of my mistakes, I can start correcting myself. One thing that leaves me a little stunned is not to use complicated long words to keep them simple for example "assistance vs. help, or individual vs. person," I can agree and disagree on this comment. I agree because, it is easier to understand, but at the same time you want to write at your grade level, and not lower. I will now take into consideration in my future writings with what Zinsser said, and hope to improve greatly.
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What I learned from my peers was very helpful, it made me understand how to write better. The people in group taught me about smooth transition and not to change tenses. We agreed that good writing should have correct grammar, punctuation, and stay on topic. As for William Zinsser, he blew my concept of good writing right out of the water. I thought using complex words were a key part of proper writing. I liked how Zinsser explained that only using active verbs will give your article clarity, warmth, and vigor. I was so sure using fancy vocabulary was an essential part of good writing. Now I see that using shorter and more simple words can actually get your statement or opinion across more clearly. I agree with Zinsser's four principles of good English clarity, simplicity, brevity, and humanity. Everything you write should easily understood. Bringing humanity in to your writing is great then it brings life to what is being written instead of sounding like an emotionless robot. I really agree with Zinssers opinion on good writing and now I hope to apply it to my own writing.
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Essence of each writing is based on how you explain your idea or story. Sometimes, how to write your ideas in English language, can be a little bit different. "A Good English Writing", a talk by William Zinsser, was a type of writing which made me speculate about what a good English writing can be and thereby, it caught my interest. He said that it is better to go with the "simple words" and "short sentences", rather than choosing and writing complex words and sentences. I was kind of puzzled because I thought, choosing difficult words can make the writing more attractive and professional to read, and it can also help to get better marks. Moreover, I agree on the quote, "one thought per sentence" which is an effective and improved my writing. Another point I want to add, from "A Good English Writing" is using all different types of adjectives or proverbs in small writings, by Arab students. He told them to "Do not use adverbs in a good English writing", which has helped me to improve and attain better grade in my writing and has honestly, helped me to understand and rectify my mistakes.
It was very interesting to read William Zinsser’s ideas about writing good English after we discussed in the class ours. Our ideas were a bit different but we had in common clarity and brevity. I was surprised to learn that Latin words are the enemy of the English. I always wondered why people use such complicated words, especially people in power. It is hard to understand them. Maybe the want to look smarter compare to others. You do not need to write fancy words to impress somebody. Keep it simple. I agree with William Zinsser that “simple is good” and “short is always better than long.” I always learned differently. My teachers told me use long sentences and sophisticated words to be a good writer. It doesn’t work. Many people forget that the language first of all is the ability to think. This depends on the degree of skill and education of the person. Long time ago famous Russian writer Anton Chekhov wrote: “Brevity is the sister of talent.” It speaks for itself.
I had thought that long descriptive writing is the best way when writing in English until I read
Zinsser’s article. While reading , I liked the brief and clear sentences, but when I write, I search
in the dictionary looking for long, florid and descriptive words to make sentences look beautiful
and to impress readers with my vocabulary. But I found that my approach was wrong. My
group reached a conclusion that to write well, we should stay on topic and make smooth
transitions. Correct use of grammar and appropriate vocabulary are crucial for making readers
stay engaged. Good writers are good readers. After I read Zinsser’s writing, I felt like my eyes
have opened to new and easy writing skills. I admit that Latin-originated words that I liked
before express “vague concept and abstract idea.” I agree with Zinsser’s idea that use of short
and active verbs and nouns have stronger power in impressing readers. As far as I follow Brad
and Zinsser’s suggestions, it becomes easier for me to write in English and I’m less
stressed. Thanks to Zinsser and Brad’s instructions, my writing habit is reformed to focus on
clarity, simplicity, brevity, and Humanity.
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My personal reaction what i learned about writing from my peers was simple and complicated at the same time.In my opinion some people have a very good idea about writing;like keeping it simple and straight to the point,where others make it complicated by using too many fancy words and overthink the sentence.Although I always thought in order to be a good English writer I'm supposed to use complicated and non understandable words but after reading William Zinsser's story about good writing I was pleasantly surprised.I love his style (so to speak).I agree with his rule; to keep sentences short and to the point,to use a lot of active verbs and to make it simple and understandable to everyone.I can honestly say that after reading William's "Writing Good English"I feel better about my own writing as I have a tendency to write as I talk.I certainly will benefit from his story, as I will come back to it many times during this semester.
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A good writing has different meanings in different languages. William Zinsser quoted, "It depends on what country you're from", which I strongly agree. Before reading the story we were told to talk about,"What is Good Writing." What I said was different from people in my group because you can't tell what's good writing unless you start reading it. Sure, long Latin words might seem better word choice but is it correct. This story by William Zinsser connected to what a friend of mine told me few months go "Matin, you need to start using long words for English 12". After reading the story, "Writing Good English", William Zinsser answered why I don't use long Latin words, because I've read my friends writing and it doesn't sound right. He might get frustrated to why I tell him it's still not good enough but he knows it's better for me to tell him truth than lie. Keeping it simple but correct is better than keep it professional but incorrect from what we learn by William Zinsser.
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William Zinsser’s writing principals, and the rules from my peers had me surprised and smiling.
Most of the common top rules of my peers and I were similar yet there were usually always at
least one or two different rules from all the groups. One rule a group said, “was to be a good
writer, you need to be a good reader,” which I spoke up and didn’t agree with; in my opinion
good writing comes more from within the writer not from what they have read of others.
Though I didn’t agree; it was cool and made me smile to have all these diverse opinions and
thoughts that we have in class to compare with; like the students in the handout; so it surprised
me how well Zinsser’s story fits our class.
I agree with Zinsser’s suggestions; he opened my eyes with one line that stood out to me;
he said, “Simple is good. Writing is not something you have to embroider with fancy stitches to
make yourself look smart,” I have always tried using bigger words so it sounds better, but now I
hope to listen to this quote; and apply it going forward to improve my own writing.
(words 201)
Stunned
Good writing in English is one of the topics I have not thought about before last Wednesday. In our group we discussed about it and agreed on six rules. These were good grammar, staying on topic, logical order, following the structure, getting interest of the reader and linking the ideas. It seemed like nothing new, I guess I knew it without realizing it. However, when I read “Writing Good English”, it stunned me. I wish I could see my expression. “Simple is good” was an opposite of what I expected. I always thought that using complex words makes you look advanced in the language, at least when I was writing rarely for my high school English classes and later language school classes. I think that writing English instead of Latin does feel more natural and flowing like a river. That way, the sentence has its soul. One thought per sentence and logical organizing are also good advice. Otherwise you have no clue what the writer meant. I see I have a lot to work on.
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The teacher asked us what we think a good English writing should be. I thought good structure, good grammar and personal experience accountable. My classmates also contribute other factors, such as plenty reading, vivid words and interesting topic, etc.
From William Zinsser, the principles of writing good English are Clarity, Simplicity, Brevity, and Humanity. I agree to his viewpoints. The most impressed to me comes from his explanation with English word history and many examples, which refreshes my brain. First, originally I thought all English words are equally important. The Latin words even more useful in official or for students to go to college. In fact, including Barack Obama, the great writers always use more Anglo-Saxon words if possible. I learned that a writer must know his or her readers. Second, William Zinsser said "the biggest problem that paralyzes students is not how to write; it's how to organize what they are writing." Very often I have hard time to write out what in my brain, although I have thought a lot of examples, reasons, results, conditions, or conclusions in advance. I learned that “Writing is linear and sequential.” These strategies definitely give my writing a big help.
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It was interesting to know what “good writing” means by professional’s opinion. Undoubtedly William Zinsser, the author of bestseller “On Writing Well”, the famous American writer, editor, and literary critic is the top professional in writing. His four principles, “Clarity, Simplicity, Brevity, and Humanity”, helped me to understand the mentality of English language because the language is a verbal appearance of our mind and, as Mr.Zinsser mentioned fairly, the result of national history. I dare not agree with Mr.Zinsser just about using of “Latin words”. It seems to me they help to adjust your language for different audience. It is impossible to use the same words in the petition to Her Majesty, The Queen of Great Britain, and in a request to your home manager. Moreover “Latin words” are very acceptable in the scientific world. I think that is why linguists divided IELTS (its writing and reading parts) into General and Academic module. In any case the Mr.Zinger’s article was useful and interesting for me. By any appropriate occasion I will try to follow his advises for making my English understandable and pleasant for English natives, and I hope it will help me to “fall in love” with “plain” and “strong” Beauty of English language.
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Me and my peers agreed that using plain and simple language is very easy to understand.
Even though, as one of my classmates mentioned(cannot recall her name), using latin words is often expected by teacher at university level; or even student might assume use of latin words is essential. But I cannot deny that writing in different languages is not the same, as english is my third language. It was really refreshing reading his speech, I felt like as if I was in the audience during the talk. I really liked his idea of using plain and simple words that give “life” to the sentence unlike latin which are vague and lifeless. As he stated using simple anglo-saxon words can create complex and beautiful sentences. I used to think that using latin words was a credo for writing quality essays, but after reading I reconsidered using plain english more. It would make my essays more understandable and easier to write.
When I started to read several paragraphs at the beginning of William Zinsser's article, I was already fascinated by his stories. He totally understands about foreign student’s predicament at the English class, and he also has learned how to teach variety students who were based on different cultures by his experience. Moreover, I amazed that each country has its own unique hallmark of language, because I hadn’t really thought about it before. I wrote about what’s good writing in Korea in last class. Surely there are many similarities between Korea and North America, but obviously differences exist as well. For example, Korean uses honorific language which consists of many Chinese characters. When Korean talks to elders, public audiences or unfamiliar persons, they use honorifics. However they use normal Korean as literary language for documents, newspapers, or magazine. I think, Korean is a very delicate and complicated language, but it is read so easily. Now I know how difficult to teach a foreign language to international students, and I value and respect all English teachers’ efforts. I really like William Zinsser’s keys, simple tools of the English. Those are simple, acceptable, and applicable right away. His article was very persuasive for me, and never become boring!
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HUANG, LEI #65575
Feb.26, 2014
Personal Reaction to Class Activity and William Zinsser’s Talk
After I read the talk by William Zinsser, I absolutely believe it is one of the best articles I ever read about how to write good English. He solves a problem which has confused me for a long time. The problem is that I have a stubborn belief that the vocabulary should be rhetoric and complicated in a good English writing. In China, people should memorize lots of complex English vocabulary if they want to study abroad. I also spent much time on English vocabulary, but I found I hardly improve my writing because I always struggled to choose more beautiful words rather than the structure or writing skills. As a result, I selected vocabulary as a rule for good writing in our group work last Wednesday. However, Zinsser’s opinions give me a great surprise that I can write good English with simple and short words or sentences. I have been puzzled about this question and unconfident about my English writing for twenty years. I nearly want to shout aloud to express how excited I am when I finish reading Zinsser’s talk. Nowadays, I understand I can fluently write good English with interesting stories, setting, and simple vocabulary.
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Learning through my peers helped me find out what as an English student needs to have in there writing. My peers helped me understand that there are different forms of writing. The advice William Zinsser has given us is true, Zinsser has a view and a point the Latin words are more confusing for us. We need to keep the writing clean and simple. While writing essays and paragraphs I was told to have big and fancy words will improve my mark. Zinsser shows that simple writing could go a long way. I always believed that the power of any assignment were in the words and just making sense of the essay. Overall having Zinsser advice give me reassurance that writing good English begins in a clean and simply manner.
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After reading the article “Writing Good English...” by William Zinsser, I feel it is very helpful to me. It gives a lot of practical advices such as Anglo-Saxon active verbs are the best tools in writing. Long Latin nouns are the enemy. This idea confuses me at first because I think Long Latin nouns make the writing seem professional and serious. However, after I read the examples, I am shocked and surprised. Each sentences are very purposeful; straight to the point like an arrow, it makes the writing very clear and objective. Other than using Anglo-Saxon active verbs, it is also important to keep the writing linear and sequential because reader can only process on thought at a time. As Zinsser said: “ sentence B must follow Sentence A, and Sentence C must follow Sentence B, and eventually you get to Sentence Z.” In that way, a person’s writing will be logical and readable. Therefore, I strongly agree to connect sentences to its last ones. In the mean time keep sentences short and brief. Lastly, I hope following these rules would make me a better English writer in the end of the semester and hopefully for the rest of my life.
It was surprising to read a piece like this from a writer like William. I have always thought the opposite of what he says "writing good English” is. That a good piece of work would have to sound more professional writing, since that’s how we see it on TV and read it in books. What I found really interesting and was never able to figure it out by myself was when William says to bring only "one thought per sentence" he mentions not to give all the information to the readers at once because the reader needs to process it through their mind. William mentions that rule and it was very interesting to notice he has followed exactly the same rule; he has not given us all the tips on how to write a good paper on the first page or second but throughout his writing. Overall I think I must admit I have always done what William suggest which is simplicity, not because I knew what I was doing was right but because English is my second language and I’m not so good at it. Therefore I try to keep it as simple as possible and “be myself”.
199 Words
As I was able to scruntize this interesting passage from Zinsser, I was able to substantiate the integrity of what he was saying. The longevity of the 8 page document was full of things a government official or a lawyer that would find it enervating. I was really surprised with a little spark reignited from my carpel tunnel from writing. I’m amicable with Mr. Zinsser. All the years of writing every single teacher I’ve been through as continued to express the term sophisticated word choice is always a better one. So it enables me to go look up dictionary find some word I can barely pronounce and include it in my text. But it defeats the purpose of wiring and explaining what you really mean. This world has come down to what you got to show and there’s a hundreds of threads of wars between the simple and the jargon on the internet. Thank you for the interesting read and giving people hope against those long irritating words.
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Me and my peers agreed that using plain and simple language is very easy to understand.
Even though, as one of my classmates mentioned(cannot recall her name), using latin words is often expected by teacher at university level; or even student might assume use of latin words is essential. But I cannot deny that writing in different languages is not the same, as english is my third language. It was really refreshing reading his speech, I felt like as if I was in the audience during the talk. I really liked his idea of using plain and simple words that give “life” to the sentence unlike latin which are vague and lifeless. As he stated using simple anglo-saxon words can create complex and beautiful sentences. I used to think that using latin words was a credo for writing quality essays, but after reading I reconsidered using plain english more. It would make my essays more understandable and easier to write.
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