PART 1 Gist
Writers are not writing for the mass audience or editors but rather themselves. They should be upfront about their own feelings and avoid pretentiousness.
Journalese which is full of cheap words, made-up words and clichés, is the enemy of good writing. A writer must develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning. Three suggestions are given by William Zinsser. First, make a habit of reading. Second, get in the habit of using dictionaries. Third, consider rhythm and alliteration while writing.
PART 2 Expressions
1. Now I'm saying you must write for yourself and not be gnawed by worry over whether the reader is tagging along.
gnaw: [nɔ:] to keep biting sth hard
A rat had gnawed a hole in the box.
gnaw (away) at sb/sth: to make sb feel worried or frightened, over a period of time.
Something was gnawing at the back of his mind.
Doubt was gnawing away at her confidence.
gnawing: (a.) eg. gnawing doubts
Born a Crime里的类似表达: rattle
用rattle改写: Not get/be rattled by worry over whether the reader is tagging along.
2. If they doze off in the middle of your articule because you have been careless about a technical detail, the fault is yours.
doze: 打盹 doze off: 打瞌睡；睡着 SYN drop off, nod off
Grandud was dozing in his chair.
I must have dozed off.
3. But at least your sentences will be grounded in solid principles.
be grounded in/ on sth: be based on sth
Lewis' ideas were grounded in his Christian faith.
4. Other old writers ramble and repeat themselves.
ramble: (v.) to talk for a long time in a way that does not seem cleary organized so that other people find it difficult to understand of find boring
She's getting old and she tends to ramble a lot.
ramble on about sth
My father kept rambling on about the war.
(n.) a speech or piece of writing that is very long and does not seem to be clearly organized
In a ten-page ramble, Barre explains why he wrote the book.
5. But mainly what I like is that this is a man telling me unabashedly about a love affair with poultry that goes back to 1907.
unabashed: [ˌʌnəˈbæʃt] not ashamed or embarrassed, especially when doing sth unusual or rude 不害臊的；不加掩饰的；满不在乎的
She stared at him with unabashed curiosity.
He seems unabashed by his recent defeat.
6. He didn't kowtow to the reader tor curry anyone's favor.
kowtow: [ˌkaʊˈtaʊ] 叩头； to be too eager to obey or be polite to someone in authority 顺从;唯命是从
According to the local custom, he had to kowtow three times.
We will not kowtow to the government.
7. It allows for a rich vein of humor and common sense.
a vein of humor/ malice etc: a small amount of humor etc
In voicing our fear of old age, Rivers has discovered a rich vein of comedy.
in a ... vein: in a particular style of speaking or writing about sth
in the same vein/ in a similar vein
There was more humor, in much the same vein.
poems in a serious/ light-hearted etc vein
8. These dreary phrases constitute writing at its most banal.
dreary: [ˈdrɪəri] dull and making you feel sad or bored 阴沉的；枯燥的
the same dreary routine
a dreary winter's day
banal: [bəˈnæl] ordinary and not interesting because of a lack of new or different ideas 平庸的；陈腐的
conversations about the most banal subjects
9. Notice the decisions that other writers make in their choice of words and be finicky about the ones you select from the vast supply.
finicky: [ˈfɪnɪki] too concerned with unimportant details and small things that you like or dislike
挑剔的；过分关注细节的 be finicky about
She's vey finicky about what she eats.
SYN be fussy about sth
Sue was fussy about her looks.
10. I try to surmise how in rewriting the sentence he reassembled it to end with a phrase that will momentarily linger.
surmise: [səˈmaɪz] (n./ v.) 推测
When she came in, he didn't look up, so she surmised that he was in a bad mood.
Charles was glad to have his surmise confirmed.
PART 3 Thoughts
Master the small gradations between words that seem to be synonyms. What's the difference between “cajole,” "wheedle," "blandish" and "coax"? Get yourself a dictionary of synonyms.
我非常赞同作者的这个观点。确实， 对语言的驾驭与对近义词的辨析能力有很大关系。我有一个在中国待了近四年的韩国朋友，中文水平非常高，甚至口音都很地道，很多时候都让人忘了她是韩国人。有一次她上一门中文系的选修课，她问我“惊奇”、“惊异”、“惊讶”、“吃惊”有什么区别，分别放在哪个句子最合适。我当时愣了一下，想了半天也找不到一个可以说清楚的答案。然而确实这四个词是存在差异的，如果用一个替换另一个会感觉有些别扭。比如，“他的突然到来让我很惊讶。” 用其他三个词替换都感觉不妥。这种辨析能力对于母语人士以外的人是很难学习和掌握的。在学习英语上我也常常会遇到这样的问题。上两个月从Elon Musk的传记中学到了ramification这个词，我有意识地在英语写作中用ramification来替换result和consequence。最近让一个外教帮我修改一下申请的自荐信，他修改的部分中就有一处是把我文中的ramification改回了result, 他的解释是"I can understand what you want to say, but it's just we don't use this word here"。我和室友常常嘲笑外教的放之四海而皆准的解答方式“我们就是这么说的”，然而现在想想，确实很多近义词很难解释清楚它们间的差异，很多时候只可意会不可言传，而要掌握这种辨析能力绝不是一朝一夕所能实现的。