Extended excerpt [From Zinsser’s popular guide to writing nonfiction]:

“Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.

Who can understand the clotted language of everyday American commerce: the memo, the corporation report, the business letter, the notice from the bank explaining its latest “simplified” statement? What member of an insurance or medical plan can decipher the brochure explaining his costs and benefits?” (p. 7)

Source: Editor’s copy – On Writing Well (1976|1994 HarperPerennial edition, International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-273303-6

Extended excerpt [From Zinsser’s popular guide to writing nonfiction. Final line in the chapter ‘A Writer’s Decisions.’]:

“As a nonfiction writer you must get on the plane. If a subject interests you, go after it, even if it’s in the next country or the next state or the next county. It’s not going to come looking for you.

Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.” (p. 273)

Source: Editor’s copy – On Writing Well (1976|1994 HarperPerennial edition, International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-273303-6

Re-quote note:

Zinsser used variations of this idea in different publications. One earlier example can be found in his his best-selling book On Writing Well: “After I had read various good examples, the principals began to hear the difference between their true selves and their educator selves. The problem was how to close the gap. I recited by articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, economy, humanity.” (On Writing Well, 1976|1994 HarperPerennial edition, p. 153)

Extended excerpt [Presentation to new international students at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, one of the top journalism schools in the United States.]:

“I have four principles of writing good English. They are Clarity, Simplicity, Brevity, and Humanity.

   First, Clarity. If it’s not clear you might as well not write it. You might as well stay in bed.

Two: Simplicity Simple is good. Most students from other countries don’t know that. When I read them a sentence that I admire, a simple sentence with short words, they think I’m joking. “Oh, Mr. Zinsser, you’re so funny,” a bright young woman from Nigeria told me. “If I wrote sentences like that, people would think I’m stupid.” Stupid like Thoreau, I want to say. Or stupid like E.B. White. Or like the King James Bible.”

Source link [Featured source]: “Writing English as a Second Language” (1 December 2009) The American Scholar: https://theamericanscholar.org/writing-english-as-a-second-language/#.V_XVR5MrKAY

Source [Zinsser re-quote]: Editor’s copy – On Writing Well (1976|1994 HarperPerennial edition, International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-273303-

Extended excerpt [From Zinsser’s popular guide to writing nonfiction]:

“Even when “I” isn’t permitted, it’s still possible to convey a sense of I-ness. The political columnist James Reston didn’t use “I” in his columns; yet I had a good idea of what kind of person he was, and I could say the same of many other essayists and reporters. Good writers are visible just behind their words.” (p. 23)

Source: Editor’s copy – On Writing Well (1976|1994 HarperPerennial edition, International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-273303-6

Extended excerpt [From Zinsser’s popular guide to writing nonfiction]: “The Period. There’s not much to be said about the period except that most writers don’t reach it soon enough. If you find yourself hopelessly mired in a long sentence, it’s probably because you’re trying to make the sentence do more than it can reasonably do.” (p. 114)

Source: Editor’s copy – On Writing Well (1976|1994 HarperPerennial edition, International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-06-273303-6