506 - Module 1

I used The Elements of Style years ago when I was undergrad, but had never heard of On Writing Well, though I note that it’s in its 30th anniversary edition. I really like Zinsser’s simple, common sense advice on writing. I particularly identified with a paragraph at the end of the second chapter on simplicity. Zinsser notes that people often inform professional writers that “they could write a book,” or that they would like to try writing – that is, for fun. In their mind it doesn’t take the hard work and skill required of THEIR profession.

I appreciate Zinsser’s indignation because I hear it nearly every day as well. I work with a group of logisticians and software and network engineers. Part of my job is to listen to their technical explanations and translate it into “English” so the client can track the progress on their program. Some of what my coworkers do, I admit, I don’t understand, but sometimes I think they use consultant speak to make their work sound more mysterious and so beyond my comprehension. To get to the meat of the topic, I have to ask lots of questions and sometimes keep asking the same question in different ways until they can lay aside the jargon and explain to me what they are doing. After many inquiries, I can usually unearth a quote that tells the story.

The problem is, often when I send a piece for their review, they want to undo my work and rewrite the article in their lingo. They also want to flower-up any quotes I may have used in order to ensure that they sound sufficiently intelligent. They can take a great, descriptive quote that conjures an image and makes a scientific topic understandable, and turn it back into a long string of unwieldy words that not even a scientist would use in conversation. Add that to the consultant-ese, and the article is almost unreadable. Detail turns into granular and use turns into leverage – just say it!

My coworkers don’t seem to understand that the biggest part of writing is not putting words on a piece of paper; they are right, anyone can do that. The hard part of writing is arranging those words into coherent sentences and paragraphs so that someone OTHER than perhaps the author’s proud mother would not only want to read, but get something out of it. If no one ever reads your work, you are journaling. As fulfilling and enriching as person journaling may be, not all journals are worthy of being read by anyone but the writer. 

Especially in this era where anyone can write a blog that others can easily access, it makes writing seem effortless and easy, but as Prof. Nichols said in her lecture, “no one will listen to you unless you have a concise and interesting way to say it.”