TOEFL

“So what is good English?” asks William Zinsser. “…it’s plain and it’s strong,” he answers. “It has a huge vocabulary of words that have a precise shade of meaning; there’s no subject however technical or complex, that can’t be made clear to the ordinary reader in good English – if it’s used right.”

One of the best ways to learn something is to watch a master at work. William Zinsser is a master. While his books will teach you a lot of what you need to know to write well, his writing will teach you even more. He deserves to be read – and re-read – by anyone who wants to write. This article, reproduced from The American Scholar, is a good lesson in essay writing.

Most people would not take a trip without knowing where they’re going and how to get there. Unfortunately, many writers do it all the time. If you want to become a good writer, you need a good plan, or process – like the one I describe in this article.

Xurxo knows the secret of learning to write. When I read one of his essays and asked him where he learned to write so well, he said, “Reading New York Times essays.” The secret to learning to write is fairly simple – if you want to write essays, read essays. In other words, read the kind of thing you want to write.

When you use what you learned in your first language to make English more comprehensible, or understandable, you improve your ability to acquire more English. Stanford University just made that easier for medical students and professionals. And even if you’re not in medicine, you can learn how to use what you already know in your area of study or work to improve your English.