Simple style, simple mind? (Zinsser)

April 4th, 2008  |  Published in Business, Writing, Education, Quotes  |  1 Comment

Plain talk will not be easily achieved in corporate America. Too much vanity is on the line. Managers at every level are prisoners of the notion that a simple style reflects a simple mind. Actually a simple style is the result of hard work and hard thinking: a muddled style reflects a muddled thinker or a person too arrogant, or too dumb, or too lazy to organize his thoughts.

—William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 175.

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Responses

  1. Jesse Hines says:

    April 7th, 2008 at 12:18 pm (#)

    Josh,

    This is an outstanding quote.

    Real writers know that simplicity and clarity is the key to writing well.

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