William Zinsser - Learned Quotes

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Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what has been written before. Writing is learned by imitation.

William Zinsser

Writing is learned by imitation. If anyone asked me how I learned to write, I'd say I learned by reading the men and women who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it.

William Zinsser

Many of us were taught that no sentence should begin with " but." If that's what you learned, unlearn it — there's no stronger word at the start. It announces a total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change.

William Zinsser