On Writing Well ch.1&2

Vocabulary

bewilder

As for the students, anyone might think we left them bewildered.

看单词以为是be wilder，其实是to confuse someone，使迷惑，难住。
bewildering 使人迷惑的 confusing and difficult to understand
bewilderment n.混乱 confusion

bewilder vs. confused
是同义词，但不能完全替换，例如
I confused you with your sister.
confuse X and Y 表示分不清X和Y，means I couldn't tell the difference, or thought one was the other.
I bewildered you with your sister.
bewilder X with Y 表示由于Y让X困惑，means I used your sister to cause you confusion.
https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/3952/confused-vs-bewildered

glimpse

But in fact we gave them a broader glimpse of the writing process than if only one of us had talked.
n. 一瞥，一见；短暂的感受或领会 a quick idea or understanding of what something is like。
catch/have a fleeting glimpse of 快速的一瞥

glimpse也可以作动词，表示瞥见 看一看

spell

During the 1960s the president of my university wrote a letter to mollify the alumni after a spell of campus unrest
以前只知道“拼写”这个动词意思，spell还可以表示名词“（持续的）一段时间”，是可数的。
持续某一个事件或情况：
I lived in London for a spell. 我在伦敦住过一阵子
She had a brief spell as captain of the team. 她曾经当过一段时间的球队队长
持续某一天气：
a spell of dry weather 一段天气干燥的日子
The weather broadcast is for dry, sunny spells.天气预报说是持续干燥的晴天

There’s no sin so grave

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, for the reader will not easily be lured back.

表示anything can be forgiven。"so grave" means "too serious". So there is no sin bad enough, or serious enough, that it can't be made right or forgiven.
https://hinative.com/en-US/questions/3657958

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Summary

Nobody told all the new computer writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they’re writing fluently doesn’t mean they’re writing well.

writing fluently不等于writing well，达到fluent已经很难了，writing well是更难的。

ch.1 The Transaction 由Zinsser和Dr.Brock的分歧开始，两个人在是情绪是否会影响写作和是否使用symbolism意见不一，但是都对对方的想法很有兴趣。由此也引出了Zinsser对写作方法的态度：

There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.

能帮助你表达自己的方法就是好方法，每个人的情况不一样，不要给自己设限。有了对的方法，还要进一步的write naturally，让自己的写作变得鲜活，充满humanity和warmth。

ch.2 Simplicity 讲了为什么要精简写作语言，以及如何cut the clutter

The answer is to clear our heads of clutter. Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.

要有意识的保持头脑清晰，写作的时候才能更有调理，但这并不容易，第二章结尾附上了部分手稿，这已经是整理过4-5遍的内容了，仍然有很多地方需要精简，以达到作者tigher, stronger, and more precise的要求。

Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident.

起初我以为这会是一本非常academic的写作指导，没想到还是比较有趣并且易读，下面摘抄了一些非常生动的语句：

Bloggers are saturating the globe.
keep pace with the train of thought
hacking through the verbiage