Genealogy Books - Writing To Learn

Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating:

Summary: Pretty good, but ...
Comment: The book starts by expressing how we can use writing to learn, but it seems to get more into stating
over and over THAT we can use writing to learn, not HOW to learn through writing, or how to teach
through the use of writing. But maybe it's just me.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Writing to Learn
Comment: Writing to Learn William Zinsser, in his instructional nonfiction book Writing to Learn,
incorporates the methods of writing well with examples of good writing. A recurring theme from his
work is the theory of writing across the curriculum. Writing across the curriculum is a technique
that he has adapted over years of approaching topics he knows little about. By writing about
something, one can learn about that subject, and that's the main point of the book. College
students, for example, who have trouble in English or humanity-style classes but excel in science
and math, can benefit from writing about a topic they are interested in and familiar with. With
selected examples from writers who are considered the best in their field, Zinsser offers the reader
a clear picture of what good topic oriented writing should be. Writing to Learn is written in the
same lighthearted concise style as On Writing Well, another of the author's works. In Writing to
Learn William Zinsser applies anecdotes from his liberal education combined with light humor to
develop chapters that vary from writing about art to writing about mathematics and music.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Not what I expected...
Comment: Too artsy fartsy. Not well organized. I couldn't tell the writing samples from the analysis.
Chapter headings didn't help. Maybe different formatting would have helped. As is, difficult to
plow through.

Customer Rating:

Summary: "How to Write and Think Clearly About Any Subject at All"
Comment: I think we all have a "fear" of certain subjects. For me, that fear manifests itself in the field
of math. I was terrified of it in school and even now would rather discuss almost any other
subject. Zinsser helps us face our fear of subjects we think we don't understand by writing. How
will that help? You probably know a lot about the work you do. You could probably also write very
competently about your profession. In "Writing to Learn," Zinsser shows us that writing across the
curriculum (which is very prominent in education right now) can help anyone learn how to organize
and present their thoughts in a logical manner so that they can be understood by those who might
otherwise be intimidated by them. Zinsser gives many examples from writers that support his
statement that writing is helpful in all subjects in the curriculum: science, history, music,
math...MATH??? How can you write about math? It's all in Zinsser's book, which is as entertaining
as it is informative.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Arrogant Fella
Comment: Though his book is extremely well written, Bill Z. (Billsy :-) tends to overvalue "standard"
English. In fact, he's downright arrogant.

Here's an example of what Billsy writes
in his book: "I can't handle an A-plus mind expressing itself in C-minus sentences." The mind and
sentences being those of Richard Feynman.

Ultimately, Zinsser unwittingly makes the
statement of how very-very far we must go before educated people in positions of de facto power who
spout things such as "writing to learn"/ "learning to write" and people doing hard core
intellectual work, yet maintain their humanity, understand each other.

Personally, I
can't handle a C-minus mind expressing itself in A-plus sentences. A good example are the mind and
sentences of Bill Zinsser.

In short, arrogant "Fellas" like Bill should simply have a
set of bongo-drums smashed down on their heads...just kidding.

For less arrogance and
better understanding read Rudolph Flesch's "How to Write, Speak and Think More Effectively." />

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