PART 1 Gist
In this chapter, Zinsser gave an assortment of admonitions on writing well. For starters, Zinsser suggested that writers should choose active verbs over passive verbs if possible. Secondly, they should avoid unnecessary adverbs, adjectives, and qualifiers which make no sense. Thirdly, a good writer must be adept at using punctuations, mood changers, and contractions. Fourthly, use "that" and "which" properly. Moreover, concept nouns, creeping nounism, overstatement, insincerity, dictation and thoughts of competition are fatal to any essay. Zinsser gave two helpful tips -- make good use of subconscious mind and fix problems by simply eliminating the troublesome element. Furthermore, he admonished that writers should keep their paragraphs short but never go berserk.
PART 2 Expressions
1. This is a chapter of scraps and morsels -- small admonitions on many points that I have collected under one, as they say, umbrella.
admonition: [ˌædməˈnɪʃn], formal, 诫言 a warning or expression of disapproval about sb's behavior
She ignored the admonition of her mother.
admonitory: [əd'mɒnɪtrɪ] (a.) eg, ad admonitory glance
admonish: to tell sb severely that they have done sth wrong
admonish sb for (doing) sth eg. The witness was admonished for failing to answer the question.
admonishment: (n.)
2. Use active verbs unless there is no comfortable way to get around using a passive verb.
get around sth: 1. to avoid sth that is difficult or causes problems for you
I think we should be able to get around most of these problems.
She was always very clever at getting around the rules.
2. If news or information gets around, it is told to a lot of people.
News of the accident soon got around.
Word got at around that the department might be closed.
3. It's virtually a toss-up.
toss-up: (n.) 掷硬币
it's a toss-up: spoken, used when you do not know which of two things of happen, or which of two things to choose
I don't know who'll get the job -- it's a toss-up between Carl and Steve.
4. Like adverbs, they are sprinkled into sentences by writers who don't stop to think that the concept is already in the noun.
sprinkle: (v.) 撒；下小雨（It is sprinkling.）
I sprinkled cocoa over my latte.
be sprinkled with jokes/ quotations etc: to be full of jokes etc
The book is liberally sprinkled with clichés.
sprinkle: (n.) eg. Add a sprinkle of salt.
5. Every little qualifier whittles away some fraction of the reader's trust.
whittle: 削木头
whittle sth away/ whittle away at sth: to gradually reduce the amount or effectiveness of sth, especially sth that you think should not be reduced
The museum is worried that government funding will be whittled way.
Congress is whittling away at our freedom of speech.
6. Somehow this invaluable tool is widely regarded as not quite proper -- a bumpkin at the genteel dinner table of good English.
bumpkin: informal, sb from the countryside who is considered to be stupid 乡巴佬
Beneath the polished veneer, he is a country bumpkin.
7. It announces total contrast with what has gone before, and the reader is thereby primed for the change.
prime sb with/ for sth, prime sb to do sth: prepare sb for a situation so that they know what to do
Did you prime her with what to say?
He had a shower and primed himself for action.
He had been primed to say nothing about it.
8. Careless writers often change their time frame without remembering to tip the reader off.
tip sb off (about sth/ that ...): to give sb such as the police a secret warning or piece of information, especially about illegal activities
The police must have been tipped off.
Did you tip him off about Bernard?
tip-off: (n.) informal, 1. 密告， 警告；2. 表明，暗示
The arrests came after a tip-off from a member of the public.
The fact that he hasn't called should be a tip-off that she's not interested.
9. Inexperienced students are chilled to find themselves in the same class with students whose byline has appeared in the college newspaper.
byline/ by-line: a line at the beginning of an article in a newspaper of magazine that gives the writer's name, 代指作家的署名
She is a financial journalist with her own byline.
10. When you find yourself at such an impasse, look at the troublesome element and ask, "Do I need it at all?"
impasse:[ˈɪmpæs] 僵局 a situation in which it is impossible to continue with a discussion or plan because the people involved cannot agree
The political process is at an impasse.
Negotiations seemed to have reached an impasse.
PART 3 Thoughts
The Dash. Somehow this invaluable tool is widely regarded as not quite proper -- a bumpkin at the genteel dinner table of good English. But it has full membership and will get you out of many tight corners. ... An explanatory detail that might otherwise have required a separate sentence is neatly dispatched along the way.
想起一个关于标点符号的小故事，上世纪三十年代上海某家书局以稿子中的实际字数来计算作家的稿费，而将文章中的标点符号忽略不计。鲁迅于是就和这家书局开了一个玩笑。他在给书局的稿子中不加任何标点，也不分段落，密密麻麻写了一直的文字。该书局只得回信给鲁迅，承诺给所有的标点和空格计费。标点虽然看似不起眼，但是它对于文章来说必不可少，善用标点也能给文章增色不少。比如George Orwell在动物庄园（Animal Farm）里面有这样一段话：“It now appeared that Snowball was not, after all, hiding on Pinchfield Farm, and in fact and never been there in his life: he was living -- in considerable luxury, so it was said -- at Foxwood, and had in reality been a pensioner of Pilkington for years past.” 这一句话有正常的两三句话那么长，但是因为灵活地使用了标点（逗号，分号，破折号）所以不会让读者有晦涩或冗长之感，相反，会感觉很流畅和生动。在佩服 Orwell 的写作功力之余，也不禁想到自己使用标点符号时的畏惧和笨拙。破折号是我在写作中最不敢用的标点，其次是分号和冒号，中英文写作都是如此。我想这种对标点符号的不善驾驭与对自己文字表达的信心不足也有一定的关系吧。读鲁迅、奥威尔的文章感觉他们写文字就像玩一样，非常灵动，善于变化，而标点更是不在话下，随手拿出来。相较之下，自己很多时候还过分关注单词本身的文采和准确性、唯恐自己的表达平淡乏味或者有失偏颇，在标点上更是循规蹈矩，不敢乱用 。