On Writing Well - William Zinsser 2001
Index
Aciman, Andre,136
Ackerman, Diane, 156-58
Active verbs, 68, 241,289
Act One (Hart), 136
Ade, George, 208,215-18
Adjectives, 33, 70-71
in criticism, 198
as nouns, 33
unnecessary, 70-71
Adventures of a Mathematician
(Ulam), 159
Adverb(s), 69-70
Agnew, Spiro, 213
Agueros, Jack, 123-24
Allen, Woody, 67, 209, 219,221, 227
Alliteration, 36
American Heritage Dictionary, 39, 42-44
American Places (Zinsser), 129-32
Angelas Ashes (McCourt), 136
Annual reports, 176
Anxiety. See Fear
Archy and Mehitabel (Marquis), 217-18
Arlen, Harold, 248
Arlen, Michael J., 136, 201-2
Armies of the Night (Mailer), 98
Asimov, Isaac, 41
Audacity, 245
Audience, 25-32
Babe (Creamer), 184
Bach, J. S., 236
“Back to Bachimba” (Lopez), 140-42
Baker, Russell, 136,214
Baldwin, James, 128-29
Banality, 270. See also Cliches.
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 199
Barzun, Jacques, 41
Baseball, writing about, 90-92,
179-81,183-84,186-87
Basketball, 192-93
Beau Geste (film), 275
Benchley, Robert, 218
Bernstein, Theodore M., 41
Bible, 63,69,167,241,289
Block, writers, 22-23
“Block That Chickenfurter”
(Zinsser), 56-58
Blondie (comic strip), 214,248
Bombeck, Erma, 228
Book-of-the-Month Club, 97,102-3
Bottom of the Harbor (Mitchell), 112
Bradbury, Will, 153-54
Bradley, Bill, 192-93
Branch, Taylor, 98
Breeziness, 233-35
Broun, Heywood, 103
Buchwald, Art, 208, 213
Buckley, William F., Jr., 245
Burton, Richard, 279
Bush, George, 23, 223, 239
Business writing, 166-78
Cab at the Door (Pritchett), 136
Canby, Henry Seidel, 103
Canfield, Dorothy, 103
Capote, Truman, 98
Careful Writer (Bernstein), 41
Caro, Robert A., 98
Carson, Rachel, 98,159
Carter, Jimmy, 44
Casablanca (film), 199
Catch-22 (Heller), 209
Child, Julia, 84
Christiansen, Donald, 161
Churchill, Winston, 63, 239
Clarity, 9-12,166
editing for, 292
Glides, 33-35, 236-37
in leads, 60
in travel writing, 117-18
Clines, Francis X., 258
Clinging to the Wreckage
(Mortimer), 145-46
Clinton, Bill, 44
Clutter, 13-17
Colon, 74
Columnists, 206-7
Coming Into the Country (McPhee), 120-22
Compression, 165, 258-59, 265, 273
Concept nouns, 76-77,172
Concrete details, 120,157,197
Condescension, 233,235
Confidence, 20, 23, 30, 234, 245,
247,250, 289
Contractions, 75
Control
of humor, 212
of material, 52, 76
Coolidge, Calvin, 66
Correspondence
business, 166-67
customer, 173-75
Creamer, Robert, 184
Credibility, 78
Criticism, 194—207
drama, 195
guidelines for, 196-99
humor in, 203
literary, 205-6
movies, 197,199-201
music, 202-3
television, 201-2
Cross, Wilbur, 238, 240, 242
Cuomo, Mario, 240
Curiosity, 249, 252-53
Darwin, Charles, 159
“Dating Your Mom” (Frazier), 224-25
Davies, Paul, 159
Dead Sea Scrolls, 62-63
Dean, John, 13,14
Definitiveness complex, 52
DeLillo, Don, 246
Dictation, 78-79
Dictionaries
American Heritage, 39,42
New World, 35
synonym, 35-36,275
Third International, 41-42
Didion, Joan, 60-61, 96,119-20
DiMaggio, Joe, 293-94
Doonesbury (comic strip), 209
Doughty, Charles, 279
Dr. Strangelove (film), 209
Drinking Life, A (Hamill), 136
Dyson, Freeman, 159
Ecclesiastes, 167
Editing, 9-12, 84-88.
See also
Rewriting.
Editors, 289-93
Education of Henry Adams (Adams), 140
Ego, 24,135,147
Eiseley, Loren, 158-59
Eisenhower, Dwight, 239
Elements of Style (White), 36-37
Eliot, T S , 123, 205-6
Eloquence, 238—42
E-mail, 166
Endings, 64-67, 284
Energy, 89, 245, 289
Engelking, L L , 207
Enjoyment, 243—45
Enthusiasm, 52-53,117, 283
Ephron, Nora, 221
Ethics
in interviews, 108,111-15
in writer’s intention, 263-64
Ethnicity, 107, 238, 242
Euphemisms, 14—15
Exaggeration, 78
Exclamation point, 72-73, 75
Exiles (Arlen), 136
“Eye of Edna” (White), 228
“Fables in Slang” (Ade), 215-17
Fad words, 16,43,169
Family history, 261
Faulkner, William, 199, 208
Faxes, 166
Fear of writing, 5,148—49,166, 245-48, 250
Feiffer, Jules, 208, 213
Fields, W C , 220
Fierce Attachments (Gomick), 136
Fire Next Time (Baldwin), 128-29
First-person voice, 21-22, 50
avoidance of, 23
Fleishman, Ernest В , 168-69
Focus, 259
Ford, Gerald R , 23
“For My Indian Daughter” (Johnson), 143—45
Four Feathers (film), 276
Fowler, H W, 75
Fraser, Kennedy, 146—47 Frazier, Ian, 221, 224-25
Fnedan, Betty, 64
Friedman, Thomas L , 98
Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 249
“Future of the Transistor” (Keyes), 160
Generalizations, 150,173, 289
in criticism, 197
Gibbs, Wolcott, 221
Ginsberg, Allen, 246
“Glad Rags” (Updike), 225-27
God and the New Physics (Davies), 159
Gone With the Wind (Mitchell), 103
Gomick, Vivian, 136
Gould, Stephen Jay, 159
Grammar, 234—35
See also Syntax
Granta (magazine), 99
Grasso, Ella, 238-39
Grimes, Burleigh, 58, 59
Growing (Woolf), 136
Growing Up (Baker), 136
Haig, Alexander, 15-16
“Halfway to Dick and Jane” (Agueros), 123-24
Hamill, Pete, 136
Harding, Warren G , 66
Hard Times (Terkel), 106
Harpers (magazine), 98
Hart, Moss, 136
Haskell, Molly, 199
“Hassidic Tales” (Allen), 221
Hazleton, Lesley, 188-90
Heller, Joseph, 209
Hemingway, Ernest, 40,50, 69,208
Herndon, James, 30-32
Hoover, J Edgar, 226-27
Houseman, John, 136
“How Iraq Reverse-Engineered the Bomb” (Zorpette), 161-65
“How the Savings and Loans Were Saved” (Keillor), 223-24
How-to writing, 84,150
How to Survive in Your Native Land (Herndon), 30-31
“Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” (Updike), 183-84
Humanity
in business writing, 166-67,172
in science writing, 153
Humor, 208-29,245
Hyperbole, 78
I.E.E.E. Spectrum, 161-65 Imagery, fresh, 180,237,271 Imitation, learning by, 219, 238
Immense Journey (Eiseley), 158-59
In Cold Blood (Capote), 98
Individuality, 133-35.
See also
Personality.
Integrity, 108,187, 263-64
Intention, 263-64
Interviews, 100-115
ethics with, 108,111-15
with experts, 250-53
preparation for, 103-5
tape recorder for, 105-6
use of quotations, 108-9
Investigative reporting, 161,262
Irony, 86-87,209
Jackson, Jesse, 240
Jargon
business, 174—76
education, 169-72
journalism, 33-35
sports, 179-80
vs. usage, 44-45
Johnson, Lewis P, 143-45
Johnson, Lyndon, 15,98,213
Johnson, Samuel, 42
Johnson, Walter, 59
Journalese, 33-35
Journalism
first-person voice in, 22
investigative, 161, 262
jargon in, 33-35
literature and, 95-99
New, 115
paragraphing in, 80-81
Kamzic, Nick, 91
Kaplan, Janice, 190-92
Karr, Mary, 136
Kaufman, George S., 195
Kazin, Alfred, 139-40
Keillor, Garrison, 209,221-24
Kelly, Walt, 213
Kennedy, John F., 240
Keyes, Robert W, 160
King, Billy Jean, 191-92
King James Bible, 69,241,289
Kingston, Maxine Hong, 142-43
Kissinger, Henry, 34
Kubrick, Stanley, 209
L.A. Law, 198
Lampoon, 209
Lardner, Ring, 99, 208,217,219
Last Brother (McGinniss), 112
Latin words, 69
Lawrence, T. E., 128,279,283
Leacock, Stephen, 214,228
Leads, 55-64
“breakfast-to-bed,” 62
clich£, 60
famous, 63-64
have-in-common, 60
in sportswriting, 58-59
in travel writing, 270
Leaves of Grass (Whitman), 140
Lebowitz, Fran, 221
Lenins Tomb (Remnick), 98
Leonard, John, 203-4
Levels of the Game (McPhee), 183
Levi, Primo, 159
Lewis, Norman, 248
Leyland, Jim, 90,91
Liars’ Club (Karr), 136
Life (magazine), 56,98,208,212
Life on the Run (Bradley), 192-93
Lin, Maya, 130
Lincoln, Abraham, 69,195,241-42
Lingua Franca (magazine), 99
Lippmann, Walter, 244
Literature, nonfiction as, 95-99
Lives of a Cell (Thomas), 159
Living-Room War (Arlen), 201-2
Logic, 265, 290
Look (magazine), 56
“Look at Organized Crime” (Allen), 221
Lopez, Enrique Hank, 140-42
Losey, Joseph, 197
McCarthy, Joseph, 213
McCourt, Frank, 136
McCullough, David, 98
McGinniss, Joe, 112
Mclltrot, Tom, ix-x
McKelway, St. Clair, 221
Mackintosh, Prudence, 125
McPhee, John, 120-22,183
Mailer, Norman, 19, 72,98,245
Making of the Atomic Bomb
(Rhodes), 98
Malcolm, Janet, 111
Man Who Mistook His Wife for a
Hat (Sacks), 159
Marquand, John P, 97
Marquis, Don, 217-18
Marx, Groucho, 67,219
Massey, Raymond, 195
Masson, Jeffrey M., Ill
Mauldin, Bill, 15, 212
Mead, Margaret, 63-64
Medawar, Peter, 159
Memoir, 133-47, 259,262-33
autobiography vs., 136
family history as, 261
Memos, 166,176
Men at Work (Will), 183
Mencken, H. L., 28-30, 66, 99, 208, 213
Metaphor, 203-4
Michener, James, 203-4
Mitchell, Dwike, 107, 233
Mitchell, Joseph, 99,112-14
Mitchell, Margaret, 103
Models, writing, 96-97, 219, 238
Modem English Usage (Fowler), 75
Monty Python, 219
Mood
changers of, 74—75
unity of, 50
Moore, Marianne, 43
Morley, Christopher, 103
Morrison, Toni, 245
Mortimer, John, 145-46
“Mr. Hunters Grave” (Mitchell), 112-14
Mumford, Lewis, 39—40
My Life and Hard Times (Thurber), 149
Nabokov, Vladimir, 136
Narrative, 266
Nast, Thomas, 213
New Journalism, 115
New School for Social Research, 256
Newsletters, ix-x, 169-70,176
New Yorker, 50, 76, 80, 98,112, 205, 222
New York Herald Tribune, xi, 202, 207,243
New York Public Library, 101
New York Review of Books, 99
“Night the Bed Fell” (Thurber), 229
Nixon, Richard M., 13,15,45,239
Nouns
adjectives as, 33
concept, 76-77,172
creeping, 77-78
plain, 241
as verbs, 16, 33, 44-45
One Writers Beginnings (Welty), 136-38
Oral histories, 106
Oral language, 42,107,240
O’Reilly, John, 244
Orwell, George, 15,167-68
Out of Egypt (Aciman), 136
Overstatement, 78
Ozick, Cynthia, 205-6
Paine, Thomas, 37
Panda’s Thumb (Gould), 159
Paper Lion (Plimpton), 183
Paragraphs, 80-81
transitions between, 56,266
Parker, Dorothy, 195
Parody, 209-12
Parting the Waters (Branch), 98
Passive voice, 68-69, 289
Path Between the Seas
(McCullough), 98
Perelman, S. J., 208, 214,217, 219-20,245
Period, use of, 72
Periodic Table (Levi), 159
Permission, 92,134—35,147
Personality, writers, 26,133-34, 233, 269, 289-90
Peterson, Roger Tory, 248-54
Phrases, unnecessary, 16-17
Place, writing about, 116-32, 256-59,269
Platitudes. See Cliches.
Plimpton, George, 183
Pluto’s Republic (Medawar), 159
Pogo (comic strip), 213
Political language, 15, 23
“Politics and the English Language”
(Orwell), 15
Porter, Katherine Anne, 41
Power Broker (Caro), 98
Prepositions
at sentence end, 42
verbs with, 13,16, 33
Pretentiousness, 169,173
Pritchett, V. S., 127-28, 136, 234-35
Process, description of, 149-50,165
Pronoun(s)
impersonal, 21
nonsexist, 81-84
unity of, 50
Punctuation, 72-74
Pynchon, Thomas, 246
Qualifiers, 71-72
Quests, 130,263,279
Quotations
editing of, 108-10
for ending, 67
Raban, Jonathan, 122
Racial memory, 238
Readers. See Audience.
Relaxation, 20-21,272
Remnick, David, 98
Reno, Janet, 44
Resonance, 67, 275, 279
Reston, James, 22
Reviewing. See Criticism.
Rewriting, 84-88
Rhodes, Richard, 98
Rhythm, 36, 37
Richardson, Elliot, 23
Riggs, Bobby, 191
Right Stuff (Wolfe), 64,96,125-26
Roget’s Thesaurus, 35-36, 275
Rombauer, Irma S., 63
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 8,239
Ross, Lillian, 221
Roueche, Berton, 154
Ruff, Willie, 107, 233,284
Rumpole of the Bailey (Mortimer), 145
Run-Through (Houseman), 136
Ruth, Babe, 184, 244
Ryall, G. F. T, 193
Sacks, Oliver, 159
Safdie, Moshe, 155-56
Sahl, Mort, 213
Satire, 209
Saturday Evening Post, 98
Scherman, Harry, 97,103
Schmeck, Harold M., Jr., 151-53
“Schmeed Memoirs” (Allen), 221
Science writing, 148-65
humanity in, 153
Scientific American, 99,160
Scopes, John, 28-29
Self-discipline, 273
Self-esteem. See Confidence;
Personality.
Sellers, Peter, 248
Semicolon, 73
Sentences
last, 64
lead, 55-56
short, 72,266-67, 289
“7000 Romaine, Los Angeles 38”
(Didion), 60-61
Sexist language, 81-84
Shakespeare, William, 69, 87-88
Shepherd, Jean, 216
Sherwood, Robert E., 195
Silent Spring (Carson), 98,159
Simplicity, 7-12
Singer, Mark, 221
Slang, 38,43
Smith, Red, 40, 70,180-81,187,
244, 247
“Some Dreamers of the Golden
Dream” (Didion), 119-20
Speak, Memory (Nabokov), 136
Specimen Days (Whitman), 140
Split infinitives, 41,42
Spock, Benjamin, 64, 84
Sportswriting, 179-93
cliches, 179-80
ego of the sportswriter, 185-87
money and, 185
obsession with numbers, 182-83
obsession with synonyms, 181-82
as social history, 180-85
by women, 190-92
Spring Training (Zinsser), 90-92, 247
Stark, Freya, 128
Steel, Ronald, 98
Stengel, Casey, 184
Stevenson, Adlai, 238
Stewart, Donald Ogden, 218
Streep, Meryl, 199-201
Style, 18-24. See also Voice.
Subconscious mind, 79
Sullivan, Frank, 218
Surprise, 67
Symbolism, 4,195
Synonyms
dictionary for, 35-36
exhausted, 180
for “he said,” 111
Syntax, 19,108
formal, 42, 234
style and, 234
Talese, Gay, 115
Tape recording interviews, 105-6
Taste, 235-38
definition of, 235-36
questioning of, 291
Taylor, Robert Lewis, 221
Technical writing, 161-65,174-78 T
echnology. See Science writing.
Television, 97,240
criticism, 201-2
Tense, unity of, 50
Tension, 265-66
Terkel, Studs, 106
Texas Monthly, 125
“Thank God for Nuts” (Zinsser), 58
Thanksgiving Proclamation (Cross), 238-40,242
“That,” “which” vs., 75-76
“The Hen (An Appreciation)” (White), 27-28
Thesiger, Wilfred, 128, 279
Thomas, Lewis, 96,99,159, 234
Thompson, Hunter, 245
Thomson, Virgil, 41, 244
Thoreau, Henry David, 8, 69,128, 136-37,140
Thurber, James, 69,149, 229, 234
Transitions, 56
editing of, 86, 291
mood changers for, 74-75
Travel writing. See Place.
Trihin, Calvin, 221
Trudeau, Garry, 209, 213
Truman (McCullough), 98
Trust, 78, 277
Tuchman, Barbara W, 39
Twain, Mark, 130, 214
Ulam, S. M., 159
Understatement, 53, 73,277
Unity, 49-54
Updike, John, 183-84, 225-27
Upholsterers (Lardner), 217
Usage, 38-46
American Heritage panel for, 39, 42-44
Verbs, 68-69
active, 68,289
nouns as, 33,44
Vidal, Gore, 206
Voice, 233-44,291
banality, 233-38
eloquence, 238-42
Voyage of the Beagle (Darwin), 159
Vulnerability, 146,168
Walden (Thoreau), 8,128,136-37, 140
Walker in the City (Kazin), 139-40
Wallace, David Foster, 245
Watergate, 45
Weapons and Hope (Dyson), 159
Webster, H. T, 244
Webster’s New World Dictionary, 35
Webster’s Third New International
Dictionary, 41-42
Weinberger, Caspar, 23
Welty, Eudora, 136-38
“Which,” “that” vs., 75-76
White, E. B., 214,215,234-35, 238
Elements of Style, 36-37
“Eye of Edna,” 228
“The Hen (An Appreciation),” 27-28
White, William Allen, 103
Whitman, Walt, 140
Will, George F., 183
Williams, Ted, 59,183-84
Willie and Dwike (Zinsser), 107,
233, 284
Wills, Gary, 96
Wilson, Edmund, 62-63,99
Wilson, Woodrow, 29
Winchell, Walter, 221
Wolfe, Tom, 19, 64, 96,115,125-26,
197,245, 289
Woman Warrior (Kingston), 142-43
Woolf, Leonard, 136
Woolf, Virginia, 97,146
Word(s), 33-37
Word processing, 88-89
Writer s block, 22-23
Years of Lyndon Johnson (Caro), 98
You Know Me, Al (Lardner), 217
Young, Chic, 214, 228,248
Zinsser, William
American Places, 129-32
“Block That Chickenfurter,” 56-58
“News From Timbuktu,” 266-83
Spring Training, 90-92, 247
“Thank God for Nuts,” 58
Willie and Dwike, 107, 233, 284
Writing to Learn, 284
Zorpette, Glenn, 161-65