Writing to Learn: How to Write - and Think - Clearly About Any Subject at All

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This book opened my eyes about the benefits and challanges of writing well.

While alive, Zinsser was our era’s guru on writing. Besides bestselling On Writing Well, he left us with a cadre of lesser-known works on how to communicate effectively. This work chronicles how to write educational pieces and is replete with examples from a variety of fields, ranging from music to geology and from physics to art.

Zinsser’s authority is relatively unquestioned in the popular sphere. I do question whether his writing principles are indeed universal, especially when it comes to worlds like poetry and religion in which ambiguity is sometimes part and parcel of the game. Nonetheless, for mainstream communication, it doesn’t get any better than Zinsser.

This work functions as a cross between a general communications guide and an anthology of examples of general communications. Kudos are granted for exploring difficult academic subjects (like science, music, and art) that many claim to be exempt from rules of good writing. In the examples, he illustrates how effective writing can advance the technical nature of a field and still empathetically engage a reader.

This work has its limitations. It is less of a how-to an more of an inspirational guide. There are ample resources available on how to write for specialized audiences (like science). This work is not one of them. Rather, it is the diligent and careful work of a generalist teaching others how to write for general audiences. He admits his personal shortcomings, especially when it comes to science, but demonstrates how joy can be found in reading about these subjects – even for those who didn’t “get it” in school. As such, this work is a fun read for generalists like myself who like dabbling in good works from other fields.

TLDR: I was already convinced of the main points, writing is thinking, writing is for everyone, we should teach writing, before borrowing this book from the library. I wanted some more reflection on the process of writing as thinking. My engineering conditioning prevents me from spending the time pouring through all of the anecdotes to get the nuggets that might be generalizable. I can find them in other books, like Write to Learn by Donald M. Murray. There are a couple chapters I will photocopy/take notes from.

I'm still left with the question: What constitutes as writing?

'Writing to Learn' was precisely the book I needed to read at precisely this time. It is another classic by the scholarly-yet-approachable William Zinsser that both motivates and instructs. I feel two things right now: a pressing and urgent need to write about anything and everything, and a great desire to go out and teach good composition to anyone who will listen. Thank you, Mr Zinsser.