William Zinsser's Argument For Clutter Free Writing

Simplicity: why Zinsser’s piece was an effective argument for clutter free writing In William Zinsser’s piece, Simplicity he questions why we live in a world where writing is filled with clutter. He examines how why it’s our national tendency to inflate our writing. He expresses why a clear sentence is important. Writing is hard work and a skill one had to constantly practice. : Zinsser’s writing demonstrates that writing is difficult, he gives clear solutions to issues that plague writers, he also makes a compelling argument for why clutter is an issue that needs to be resolved. Zinsser with his various achievement has proved that he is a competent writer. Zinsser was educated at the esteemed, Princeton University. He worked as the New

In his piece he gives various examples writings that are littered with clutter. He tells of an experience in the 1960s of his University President writing a letter to alumni about issues on campus. Zinsser explains the various issues with this letter, which included a long winded explanation of the events taking place on campus. He also takes issue with airplane pilots announcements on the weather, the pilot announces, “that he is presently anticipating experiencing considerable precipitation…” (234). The pilot adds this unnecessary flourishes instead of saying it may rain. Another example of clutter is in the Insurance or medical plan brochures that is difficult to understand with it language. These examples of clutter in American writing is only a few that are part of the problem. Why is clutter as problem? Clutter is an issue that needs to be fixed because we are bombarded by unnecessary writing, frills and meaningless jargon. This doesn’t help any ones writing. It causes readers to be lost and lose in the writing. If a reader is lost in a piece of writing, that will not continue to read. Cluttered writing leads to misunderstood pieces, leading the reader to move on to another