Reading Note: Simplicity by William Zinsser

This article definitely is a masterpiece and appreciated very much, and it surely clearly convey the idea of ideal writing. The theme is the importance of simplicity in writing, if I don't interpret it wrong, but the whole article is kind of not so easy to completely understand, at least for me. As he said, I was lost from time to time by the examples, similes and metaphors he applied to illustrate his idea. Here, I couldn't help admiring his foreseeing ability, just like he mentioned in paragraph 10, when I couldn't keep path with his train of thought, the first reaction of mine was to take the blame on myself. I kept reviewing the sections I didn't realize over and over again, but all my efforts were in vain eventually. Therefore, I just marked question marks on the margins of those sections in the end, and hoping teacher explains them in class. Hence, I wasn't sure weather I should follow his suggestion that my sufferings in reading and trying my best to understand it are all owing to his fault by making hiss work too hard. Next day, I found out that I have to give a reading note about this article, without any clues in mind, so I was absolutely in panic and wailing about the sufferings returned. But this time, it was a totally different experience from the last time. I didn’t know why I suddenly came to realize what he is trying to say, the skills, words, structure, and all the rhetoric he used in this great piece. It just seems like everything becomes so clearly to me and cause an echo in my mind and agreement almost one hundred percent.

Here, I would like to mention something I found from the second reading. I very much appreciated the transition between par.2 and par.3, because at the end of par.2 he said it will sound wrong if a formal speech or paper is using in a simple language, and it causes an obvious contrast with the beginning of par.3, according to the first sentence of this paragraph-- "But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components." In addition, the satirical sentence at the bottom of the paragraph is also one of my favorites. ("They usually occur in proportion to education and rank.") Also, the examples he illustrated are definitely effective to help him to clear out his points and efficient enough to assist readers to keep up with him. For instance, he offered two contrary examples to raise his view about how significant the simplicity is much better than the complexity in writing. Using Walden's story to lead readers to pay attention to that clear and good writing deviates from clear thinking is another excellent job done by him. Finally, the most interesting part I consider is at par.8 and his argument is really overwhelming my original concept. Who is the elusive creature on earth? In my interpretation, the answer is the writers who make their readers missing on the way and can't follow the writers' train of though again. Once readers get bored in reading and tried of searching writers traces, they will give up and rather than go sleeping.

Now I figure out the reason why William puzzled my so much at the first time I read this article, and William certainly is not the one should be blamed. Not only clear thinking can becomes clear writing, but also clear mind leads to a clear train of thought and logic for interpreting. It was my fault that I shouldn't appreciate a masterpiece in the middle of night like just reading children’s books, even trying to use it to sleep myself. However, there still remains something I don't understand, "fuss" in par.11 for example.

All in all, I consider William does well in corresponding the beginning to the ending. The very first sentence points to the theme directly, and the word "disease" implies that the situation will get worse and worse if they don't find a way to deal with the phenomenon in American society. As to the last paragraph, he reclaimed his point of view and told people that writing is originally not an easy job, let alone writing in a simple form with clear thinking.