ZINSSER

Who was the name of the author who spoke with Zinsser in Connecticut?

"Dr. Brock"

What is the piece Zinsser refers to in chapter 5 about audience?

"The Hen (An Appreciation)"

Don't worry about whether the readers will...?

"get it"

What does Zinsser say specifically about the things you write?

Never say anything in writing that you wouldn't say in a conversation

Where is White's hometown?

North Brooklyn, Maine

What would Zinsser do while he taught at Yale to help students with their writing?

put brackets around clutter words

Zinsser says to prune out small words that...

qualify how you feel

Strong verbs are weakened by what?

redundant adverbs

What did Zinsser say is the essence of writing?

rewriting

what year was "The Hen" written in?

1944

What percentage of nonfiction writing is in the newspapers?

90%

How many people were on the Usage Panel?

104

Who was Dr. Brock?

A surgeon who sold some stories to magazines

What was one of the photos in Zinsser's office a picture of ?

E.B. White

Who is "The Hen" written by?

E.B. White

What book does Zinsser say every writer should read once a year?

E.B. White's The Elements of Style

What does Zinsser remind us to do?

Examine every word and see if it is necessary

What is the secret to Menckon's writing?

He wrote for himself and didn't care what anyone else thought

What is one contraction you should avoid?

I'd

Who warned that clutter is not just a nuisance but a deadly tool?

Orwell

Who said: "the pen must at length comply with the tongue"?

Samuel Johnson

What is an important element that brings a place alive?

human activity

Good usage consists of using good words...

if they already exist

Who said: "We should apply the test of convenience. Does the word fill a real need? If it does, let's give it a franchise."

Theodore M. Bernstein

Who said 'simplify, simplify'

Thoreau

The two uses of dashes are:

one to amplify the second part of the sentence and two to set apart a parenthetical thought within the sentence

What was the main cause of the change of published writing from fiction to nonfiction?

WWII and the invention of the television

What is Zinsser's favorite dictionary?

Webster's New World Dictionary, Second Edition

Writers must constantly ask what?

What am I trying to say?

Most people write mainly in what tense?

past

What are the "twin pillars" on which nonfiction is built?

people and places

another way to avoid pronouns is to change them to the

plural form

To learn the craft of nonfiction you must push yourself out into the real world and do what?

pretend you're writing for a real publication

What does Zinsser say is a fundamental question?

Who am I writing for?

What did Zinsser say that west against what Dr. Brock said?

Writing isn't easy and isn't fun

The semicolon brings readers if not to ...

a halt, at least a pause

Roget's Thesaurus is to a writer as...

a rhyming dictionary is to a songwriter

Writing has what kind of roots?

psychological

What type of verb should you always use unless there is no other effective way?

active

What are two morals that Zinsser brings up when writing?

always collect more material than you need and look for material everywhere

Always use "that" unless it makes your meaning...

ambiguous

Zinsser said good writing has...

an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next

What is a fundamental rule Zinsser gives?

be yourself

The colon serves well its pure role of...

bringing your sentence to a brief halt before you plunge into a list

Clear thinking becomes...

clear writing

What is the disease of American writing?

clutter

Writing is an act of?

ego

What is one of the worst clutterers?

experiencing

In order to make a certain location stand out, what do you need to do in order to not bore the reader?

find the distinctive traits among the different places

Zinsser urges us to write in...

first person

The clear writer is clearheaded enough to see what?

fuzz

Readers want the author to sound...?

genuine

What sexist pronoun did Zinsser remove from one of his first edits?

he

Since writing is a interaction between two people, it goes well if...

it retains its humanity

What does Zinsser refer to as the death of freshness in writing?

journalese

Principles might not be able to be taught but they can be...

learned

The difference between active voice and passive voice is...

life and death

How do you avoid sexism in titles?

look for the generic titile

When writing a story about people what does Zinsser say is important to finding the solution?

look for the human element

Don't use an exclamation mark to do what?

make a joke or be ironic

What does Zinsser say about adjectives?

most are unnecessary

For writing a lead, Zinsser says all leads must be written in a way that...

most naturally suits the subject matter and the writer as a person

writing that is published now is what genre mainly?

nonfiction

what is common in news papers?

sloppy editing

All writing is ultimately a question of...

solving a problem

Which is looser: spoken or written language?

spoken

What is the secret to good writing?

stripping every sentence to the cleanest components

What is the most refreshing element in nonfiction writing according to Zinsser?

surprise

The perfect ending should...

take readers by surprise and seem right at the same time

What unities does Zinsser talk about?

tense and mood

Apart from the laziness of logic, what causes the story to be so tired?

the failure of the writer to find anything besides cliches

What is the most important sentence in an article?

the first one

Most writers don't reach what soon enough?

the period

"Clutter is the laborious phrase that has pushed out...

the short word that means the same thing

If readers doze off in the middle of your article who's fault is it?

the writer's

What does the word comprise mean?

to include

What is a style of soft words that under hard examination mean nothing or that mean different things to different people according to Zinsser?

travelese

What is the anchor of good writing?

unity

What does Zinsser say to get in the habit of doing?

using a dictionary

When you get people talking, handle what they say as though it were a ...

valuable gift

Zinsser says what are the most important of all your tools?

verbs

All writers are what?

vulnerable and tense

What does Zinsser compare clutter to?

weeds

You must alert the reader as soon as possible...

when there is a mood change

Ultimately, the writer is not trying to sell the subject being written about but what?

who he or she (the author) is

The best way to end a piece is what?

with a quotation

There isn't any "right" way to what?

write / do professional work

What does Zinsser say is the reason that readers get lost?

writers aren't being careful enough

thinking clearly is a conscious act that...

writers must force upon themselves

Rewriting is the essence of ...

writing

Zinsser says you learn to write by what?

writing

What does Zinsser say journalism by definition is?

writing that first appears in any periodic journal whatever its constituency

You have to strip your writing down before...

you can build it back up

Write about a field/subject that...

you enjoy

What will change as your grow older?

your style

Who does Zinsser say you are writing for?

yourself