Back to the subject of good writing, here’s the second part of my favourite quotes from each chapter of Zinsser's “On Writing Well” (check out part 1 here). One of the best advice the author gave encouraged me to keep on writing and helped me realise that I am making progress of becoming better at it: “... writing isn’t a skill that some people are born with and others aren’t, like a gift for art or music. Writing is talking to someone else on paper. Anybody who can think clearly can write clearly, about any subject at all.”

Chapter 13: Writing about Places: The Travel Article

“This is the essence of good writing about other countries. Distill the important from the immaterial... Beware of waxing. If you’re writing about places that are sacred or meaningful, leave the waxing to someone else.” 

I finished reading one of the books from  my summer reading list and I thought I'd share with you the quotes that impressed or impacted me the most. I am talking about William Zinsser's classic guide to nonfiction writing "On writing well" - an absolute bestseller. The book is easy to understand, its content flows and the author gives brilliant advice. As Zinsser puts it, this is a 'craft book' and I can only recommend it to anyone who wants to improve his or her writing. 

Below you'll find the notes I made for the first 12 chapters while I was reading book. The quotes I wrote down for chapters 13-24 I'll share with you in another post soon :)  

Chapter 1: The Transaction

“Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.”

When I was writing my dissertation a few months ago I had to spend a lot of the time by the library shelves of endless PR textbooks, where I also came across a book called ‘Publicity, Newsletters and Press Releases’ by Alison Baverstock that grabbed my attention. As a beginner in the field of writing I thought it was quite helpful because it was easy to comprehend, short, but also provided plenty of explanations, examples and practical advice.

Below you can find 8 tips I found particularly important that the author suggests for improving your promotional writing, specifically about how to put your text together, i.e. the ultimate words choice. The final tip is a bonus from me :)