On Writing Well

On Writing Well, by William Zinsser, had some really helpful advice that I think I can use in my writing. I completely agreed with his advice about simplifying, since too many writers substitute unnecessarily complicated words for simpler ones that would mean the same thing. It is completely pointless to do this, and all it does is confuse the reader or make it more difficult to understand. I also liked how he gave common examples of cluttered writing, like on airplanes or in politics. I don't understand why politicians can't just directly say what they plan to do, instead of using vague metaphors.

I think that when I write, I can start to picture brackets around my useless phrases and simplify my writing.