How is an icy windshield a great metaphor for thinking in writing?
Subject: Thinking in Writing - Zinsser’s Windshield
Event: Birthday of William Zinsser, 1922
Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That's why it's so hard. -David McCullough
Writer, journalist, and teacher William Zinsser was born on October 7, 1922. In 1976, he wrote On Writing Well, a book that generations of writers have turned to for instruction on the craft of writing and thinking well. For Zinsser, the key to good writing is clarity, simplicity, brevity, and humanity. Above all he encouraged writers to avoid clutter and to embrace clear thinking:
Clear thinking becomes clear writing: one can't exist without the other. It is 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 is no sin so grave, for he will not easily be lured back.
Like George Orwell in his classic essay “Politics and the English Language,” Zinsser argued that effective writing must be a conscious act where the writer continually interrogates himself or herself on behalf of the reader to make sure that every word is clear and every sentence is concise. Also like Orwell, Zinsser emphasizes that writing is hard work, but the payoff is that it helps you to clarify your own thinking. In a classic analogy, Zinnser compares writing to clearing the ice off a car’s windshield:
Writing enables us to find out what we know-- and what we don’t know -- about whatever we’re trying to learn. Putting an idea into written words is like defrosting the windshield: the idea, so vague out there in the murk, slowly begins to gather itself into shape.
No one enjoys being out in the elements on a cold winter morning, scraping ice off the windshield. However, if you want to get from point A to point B safely, you must commit to making sure you can see the road ahead. Furthermore, you might have some passengers -- or readers -- along for the ride who also would appreciate safe passage.
A similar analogy for thinking and writing is put forth by Dennis Sparks, executive director of the National Staff Development Council:
Writing is a way of freezing our thinking, of slowing down the thoughts that pass through our consciousness at lightning speed, so that we can examine our views and alter them if appropriate. Writing enables us to note inconsistencies, logical flaws, and areas that would benefit from additional clarity.
Writing then is about communicating your thoughts with an audience, but, just as important, it is about putting your thoughts on paper so that you can think about your own thinking. In short, it is one of the best methods we have to learn something.
Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: How do the metaphors of freezing and defrosting relate to thinking and writing?
Challenge - Frozen Thoughts on Writing: Do some research on quotations about the importance of writing. Find one you like, and explain why you think it reflects important insights about thinking.
ALSO ON THIS DAY:
October 7, 1849: American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe died. Beginning in 1949, an anonymous admirer visited Poe's cenotaph -- a monument erected at the site of Poe's original grave at Westminster Burial Ground in Baltimore, Maryland. To commemorate Poe’s birthday each January 19th, this mysterious individual -- known as the Poe Toaster” -- left three roses and a bottle of French cognac, and occasionally a note. The clandestine visits ended in 2009, the bicentennial of Poe’s birth (2). See Thinker’s Almanac - November 14.
October 7, 1885: On this day the Nobel Prize winning physicist Niel Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. For an anecdote about him and magical thinking, see THINKER’S ALMANAC - January 4.
Sources:
1-Zinsser, William. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.
2- Judkis, Maura. “Edgar Allan Poe ‘toaster’ tradition is no more” Washington Post 19 Jan. 2012.
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