business writing

Writers must therefore constantly ask: what am I trying to say?

Surprisingly often they don’t know.

Then they must look at what they have written and ask: have I said it?
Is it clear to someone encountering the subject for the first time?

On Writing Well, William Zinsser

Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.

It’s impossible for a muddy thinker to write good English. He may get away with it for a paragraph or two, but soon the reader will be lost, and there’s no sin so grave…

On Writing Well, William Zinsser

Ultimately the product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about, but who he or she is.

I often find myself reading with interest about a topic I never thought would interest me... What holds me is the enthusiasm of the writer for his field.

How was he drawn into it? What emotional baggage did he bring along? How did it cha

Jeff Bezos on meetings and truth-finding:

Meetings at Amazon are unusual. When new people come in, they're a little taken aback because the typical meeting, we'll start with a six-page narratively structured memo and we do study hall. For 30 minutes, we sit there silently together in the meeting and read. Take notes in the margins. And then we disc