Clutter By William Zinsser Summary

Humans have a reputation for wasting things: time, money, resources, and even words. When wasted words begin to distract from writing, it is called clutter. In “Clutter”, William Zinsser utilizes figurative language, ethical appeals, and arrangement to reveal the creep of cluttered language into writing and to persuade writers to avoid it.

Zinsser’s use of figurative language introduces the topic while revealing that clutter does more harm than good. He begins the essay by comparing clutter to parasitic plants, saying, “Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds- the writer is always slightly behind” (155). With the comparison, he draws the audience, students of all ages that write formally, into the essay and makes the connection that cluttered

language is as bad as those plants are. He also persuades writers that they need to fight cluttered writing as he compares it to weeds that must be pulled up over and over again to allow plants to grow. Like the other plants, writing must be free of unnecessary language to flourish. This idea is continued when he adds that overly descriptive words “are all weeds that will smother what you write” (157). This strips students of the common misconception that more is always better by saying that clutter smothers writing, killing it rather than improving it. He reveals the truth, that it is sometimes better to leave words unwritten, which allows the audience to make changes in their own writing based on their newfound knowledge. Armed with this education, writers will avoid adding unnecessary description in their own essays. Figurative language shows readers that complicated and unnecessary language is problematic, thus persuading them to remove it from their writing to fix it.
The ethical appeals further the development of why clutter is harmful and should be avoided.

Zinsser points out that “Clutter is the language of the Pentagon calling an invasion a ‘reinforced protective reaction strike’” (157). This shows how crafty wording can hide the truth and deceive readers. It displays the manipulation that governments can perform with a little change of phrasing, questioning the ethics of lying to the public. This leads the audience to consider how they have been deceived and show them why clutter is bad from the reader’s standpoint. Another example comes when Zinsser writes, “His message was ‘leave it to Al’ though what he actually said was, ‘We must push this to a lower decibel of public fixation.’”(157). This shows how selective wording can have an impact on public perception and how the government uses this fact to keep people in ignorance. Writers then see how they are being kept in the dark because they have fallen into the trap of permitting clutter to continue. Because their use of clutter justifies the government’s and they can see how it is used negatively, they resolve to stop using flowery, unnecessary language. They realize how serious clutter can be as a weapon and cut their own writing down for clarity and concision to take this weapon away. These real-life examples of ethically debatable clutter continue to reveal the damage of cluttered language and show students why it must be stopped, pushing them to avoid it in their

writing.
The purposeful arrangement of examples of clutter shows readers how clutter came into language and how it can be removed. Initially, Zinsser uses parentheses to show examples of every-day usage of clutter, as in “They were saying ‘currently’ (‘all our operators are currently assisting other customers’)” (156). This shows writers how prevalent clutter is in common usage and teaches them to recognize it. By doing this, he gives them the first step to removing it from their own writing, making them more willing to put in the effort to do it. As he continues, he uses the parentheses to show examples of solutions, listing “‘assistance’ (help), ‘numerous’ (many), ‘facilitate’ (ease)” (157). This continues to help writers recognize unnecessary language, but also shows them how to resolve it. While the first round of parentheses gives examples of errors, the second gives corrections to these errors, in that order. This takes readers through the process of removing clutter, step-by-step, and encourages them to enact it on their own. Educating the audience on how to solve the problem makes it easier for them to fix it, thus motivating them to unclutter their writing. The solution is presented to them and students then go and enact the changes in their own writing. By arranging examples in a way that gives students the exact tools they need to remove clutter, Zinsser gives one last push to persuade writers to avoid unnecessary descriptors.
With the use of figurative language, ethos, and arrangement, Zinsser shows exactly how common and threatening clutter is to persuade writers to take it out. Although it can be hard to conserve time, money, and resources, a little bit of work can ensure that words are the one thing that don’t go to waste.