My own favorites are Joan Didion, Gay Talese, Truman Capote (for In Cold Blood) and Tom Wolfe.

When the reader finds that something on the page creates a vivid image in his mind, arouses an emotion or gives him a stab of insight, he ought to enjoy the moment—and then stop, back up and try to puzzle out how the writer did that to him.

writer should learn mainly by osmosis,

pick up a good basic English text and then do the unthinkable—read it through slowly and thoroughly, no more than a section or chapter at a sitting.

In certain other cases, a reporter may slyly insert into his piece a few physical actions performed by a profile subject or other actors in his tale. He does not let his people just talk at us; he has them do something, anything.

When doing this, the reporter constantly shifts the reader’s attention back and forth from the abstract to the concrete, from the general to the particular, from the mural to the miniature.

Readers love action, any kind of action, and the story that does not move, that just sits there stalled while people declaim,

He’s convinced, and his full attention is still engaged, because you have provided a variety of internal proofs, a quality important to both the persuasiveness and conciseness of your story. Knowing this in advance, you plan to report points from various angles, seeking out quantitative evidence, quotes, and examples instead of piling up one class

Repetition is the hammer in the writer’s toolbox, but used clumsily it only flattens interest. Try to prove something to a reader by throwing three sets of figures at him, and he drops you and turns on the tube. Give him three quotes in a row by Authoritative and Informed Sources, and the same thing happens.