Simplicity by William Zinnser
In William Zinnser’s essay “Simplicity” he states that “clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” He believes that people speak more complexly then they have to and that the key to good writing and speaking is simplicity. In his argument he goes on to say that often writers are not careful enough. They know what they are trying to say but do not know how to put it down on paper. They assume that the reader will understand what they are thinking even though their writing is not obvious to others. He does make several suggestions for improvement. Very easily one could make their writing easier to understand by simple corrections.
Zinnser believes that too often people speak in a manner that is complicated. He states “our national tendency is to inflate and therefore sound important.” Most of the things said are just a bunch of jargon that sounds good. People say things that even they barely understand themselves. They believe that if something is done simply then it is not as good. With bigger words and longer sentences one would assume this sounds better, when in reality a simpler sentence would be more preferred by most. Bigger is not always necessarily better.
Often in their writing, writers make assumptions and they are careless. They assume that whatever they write will be understood by others. Sometimes, however, what they write may be totally different from what they actually mean to say. If one can not think clearly, how could they possibly write in a clear, concise way? If you do not write something clearly, chances are your reader will not understand it either. Zinnser is right when he makes his statement about clear thinking making clear writing. It is true that one can not exist without the other.
Some suggestions that Zinnser makes are quite simple. You should keep your sentences uncluttered with not too many words. You should also pay close attention to your tenses as not to confuse your reader. You should be very careful about knowing what you want to write about and think it through so that it will make sense. Zinnser states that “the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.
The climax of the story is when Miles is shot by the Bonewoman. The reader comes to realize that Miles’ choice to live life on the safe side was a mistake:
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Perhaps no other event in modern history has left us so perplexed and dumbfounded than the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, an entire population was simply robbed of their existence. In “Our Secret,” Susan Griffin tries to explain what could possibly lead an individual to execute such inhumane acts to a large group of people. She delves into Heinrich Himmler’s life and investigates all the events leading up to him joining the Nazi party. In“Panopticism,” Michel Foucault argues that modern society has been shaped by disciplinary mechanisms deriving from the plague as well as Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a structure with a tower in the middle meant for surveillance. Susan Griffin tries to explain what happened in Germany through Himmler’s childhood while Foucault better explains these events by describing how society as a whole operates.
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In the essay “Everything Now” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, author Steve McKevitt blames our unhappiness on having everything we need and want, given to us now. While his writing is compelling, he changes his main point as his conclusion doesn’t match his introduction. He uses “want versus need” (145) as a main point, but doesn’t agree what needs or wants are, and uses a psychological theory that is criticized for being simplistic and incomplete. McKevitt’s use of humor later in the essay doesn’t fit with the subject of the article and comes across almost satirical. Ultimately, this essay is ineffective because the author’s main point is inconsistent and poorly conveyed.
What do you think of when you think of complex writing? Many people would think of something that they couldn’t read because it was to hard to read. That issue is exactly what is being addressed in the world of academics today. Academics today are writing to a level that is very hard to understand, sometimes even to fellow academics. To the advantage of those who hate reading complex writing, other writers and researchers are starting to speak out on the topic. A newer style of writing is becoming more popular through the controversy. That style of writing is clear and concise writing. It is still controversial as to what is the “best” or what should be used as the common writing style, but there could be a time in the near future that writing by academics and less scholarly people, alike, are writing in the same way.
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