I know that I’m not that good a writer, so I’m always looking for ways to improve as much as I can. Being bilingual is also on of my challenges. It definitely has it’s pros, but one of it’s cons is that your thoughts are constantly shifting from language to language. I suspect that us bilinguals have to work harder at double-checking, proofreading, and basically keeping a close eye on grammar.
On Writing Well, written by William Zinsser, doesn’t address the issue of bilingual writers, but it has been a blessing for me. The results from reading it have been immediate. It’s targeted at non-fiction writers, but its principles can be applied to any type of writing. It’s not and introductory book though. The advice makes more sense to people who been playing with words for a while – it’s not a grammar rule book like The Elements of Style.
The book is divided in four parts. The first two are the ones I most benefited from. They deal with practical but powerful advice like rewriting and keeping unity. Rewriting is an obvious best practice every writer should have, but this is only known intellectually and not as commonly done as one would think, specially for us “bloggers” eager to click that publish button.
The other half of the book is the “targeted at non-fiction writers” part. It goes to specifics like writing interviews, travel articles, memoirs, the sciences, technology, business, the arts, and humor.
Just like The Elements of Style, this book is a must have for every aspiring writer and every type of genre writer for that matter. I’ll leave you with a praise quote by the New York Times that describes the book elegantly with just one sentence:
On Writing Well is a bible for a generation of writers looking for clues to clean, compelling prose.
I can honestly say that I have seen a large improvement in your writing style. Your ideas come off more clearly than before and your structure seems more “clean”. I love the look of the site and at least I can tell that there has been a lot of hard work behind the site. Keep it up and give yourself some credit, it is really a great site.
Thanks man. I know that my writing is a little better, but I still have a lot to learn.
[...] the process of how the book came about and through the reasons behind the revisions. I wrote a review of the book a while ago and I still think it’s required reading for any aspiring writer. Which reminds that I have to [...]