What to Read to Become a Good Writer

Five texts that elucidate the art of writing simply and effectively

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Writing can be a daunting task for many, with words often flowing hesitantly and appearing misplaced on the page. It’s rare for writers to pause and question why writing can be so arduous or why their output might be considered bad.

However, for those who aspire to become better writers, the recommended works presented here offer valuable insights and encouragement. Indeed, writing is a challenging endeavor. Yet, by first delving into the origins and attributes of poor writing, you can gain the skills to diagnose and rectify issues in your own prose (and simplicity is often the key). It’s also reassuring to realize that most initial drafts tend to be subpar; thus, becoming a proficient reviser is a critical skill. These five texts serve as exceptional sources of wisdom and motivation.

Starting with Orwell’s essay may appear somewhat clichéd, just as the trite phrases he critiques within it. Published in 1946, this passionate critique of subpar and deceptive writing may be familiar to many. However, its advice on effective writing remains relevant today as it was then.

Moreover, it is both concise and freely accessible. Orwell dissects the commonplace, ‘dying’ metaphors that continue to haunt the prose of academics, politicians, professionals, and journalists. He scorns the ‘meaningless words’ and ‘pretentious diction’ of his era, many of which persist in contemporary writing.

To save writers from perpetuating these pitfalls, Orwell offers six now-established guidelines. The first five can be distilled as follows: favor concise, everyday language and employ the active voice, eliminate unnecessary words, and strive for original imagery. The sixth rule—’break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous’—reveals the challenge of taming a language as adaptable as it is. Nevertheless, it hasn’t deterred others from making the attempt.

In ‘Style,’ Joseph Williams, a former English professor at the University of Chicago, imparts valuable lessons to writers on transforming their written work into something more lucid, concise, and coherent. Notably, ‘Style’ is the latest iteration of Williams’s teachings on the subject, which have been published under various titles over the years.

In contrast to Orwell, who offered high-level rules for writers to internalize, Williams presents nuanced ‘principles’ and demonstrates how to apply them. For example, while Orwell urged writers to ‘never use the passive where you can use the active,’ Williams explores how the passive voice can, at times, enhance the flow of a piece. This concept is part of his discussion on ‘cohesion’ and ‘coherence,’ which can revolutionize your writing approach.

Williams’s guidance on trimming excess in prose and his insights into the drawbacks and benefits of nominalizations (nouns derived from verbs, as seen in ‘nominalization’ from ‘nominalize’) are also illuminating. These technical details, along with summary sections and practice exercises, give ‘Style’ a distinctly textbook-like quality. Yet, this quality may also make it one of the most practical and beneficial works in this collection.

Less overtly focused on practicality than ‘Style’ but immensely enjoyable to read is ‘On Writing Well.’ William Zinsser, an American journalist and educator, offers witty and insightful commentary on the writer’s craft, with a knack for delivering memorable aphorisms, such as ‘the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.

Zinsser fearlessly delves into elusive topics like ‘rhythm’ and ‘voice,’ which often elude strict rules or principles. Nevertheless, he imparts practical wisdom, pinpointing stylistic pitfalls, exploring various writing genres from memoir to business communication, and dissecting passages from both famous literary works and his own journalistic endeavors.

Zinsser’s approach is consistently encouraging. For instance, when introducing a marked-up excerpt from drafts of ‘On Writing Well’—a web of self-edits—he advises, ‘Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair.’ Moreover, Zinsser provides fellow writers with plenty to emulate, as his sentences at the end of paragraphs are truly exceptional.

Steven Pinker, a renowned expert in linguistics and cognitive science, endeavors to assist writers in improving their craft by offering insights into the minds of their readers. This celebrated psycholinguist contends that “the curse of knowledge” represents the primary culprit behind poor writing.

In essence, writers, like children, often forget that not everyone possesses the same knowledge as they do. Consequently, bad writers tend to fixate on irrelevant details and create logical connections that make sense only to themselves. Their writing style, commonly favored by academics, bureaucrats, and business professionals, is rife with abstract nouns and indulges in lengthy sentences.

In stark contrast, good writing, or what Mr. Pinker terms “classic style,” assembles concrete words into straightforward sentences that are easily comprehensible to readers. But why does this approach work?

Employing vivid and humorous examples, Mr. Pinker elucidates how working memory, responsible for storing syntactic structures until they’re complete, can be easily overwhelmed. In the end, he also wades into the ongoing debate about English usage, a topic further explored in our comprehensive review of his work, “The Sense of Style.

Every writer requires a reliable reference book for resolving thorny issues related to grammar and language usage; it’s simply impossible to have them all memorized. While the quality of such reference materials has improved in recent years, one particular gem from the 1990s has maintained its relevance.

Merriam-Webster (mwdeu), America’s most well-known dictionary publisher, is renowned for providing a unique resource. Unlike conventional dictionaries, it offers compact essays delving into a myriad of language intricacies: individual word nuances (such as the singular usage of “data”), the differentiation between perplexingly similar words (think “comprise” vs. “compose”), and the perplexing grammatical challenges (like split infinitives and dangling modifiers, to name a few).

What sets mwdeu apart is its unwavering commitment to empirical evidence. Whenever a contentious assertion about proper usage arises, it meticulously examines the historical perspectives of other language guides and their recommendations.

Furthermore, it taps into Merriam-Webster’s extensive repository of citations derived from literature, non-fiction, and journalism. In many instances, proposed rules, such as the prohibition of split infinitives, are debunked as groundless. However, in some cases, the guide maintains a more conservative stance.

For example, when addressing the “comma fault” (connecting two independent clauses with nothing more than a comma), mwdeu acknowledges its presence in the literary works of great authors but wisely advises readers, “you probably should not attempt this technique unless you are entirely certain of your intentions.” In essence, it’s a sensible and comprehensive resource for writers of all stripes. ■