# On Writing Well by William Zinsser

4 Hacker News commenters recommended On Writing Well by William Zinsser and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a good book about writing, praised as dense, informative, enlightening and funny.

## Why people recommend it

- Good book about writing (2 comments): "One of the good book about writing I read was William Zinsser's "On Writing Well"" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47207336)) "This is basically the main argument of On Writing Well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49586914))
- Informative and enlightening content (2 comments): "Hilarious, enlightening, affirming of everyone's need and ability to write well." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46399660)) "Dense and quite informative." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46422033))
- Focus on every word (2 comments): "This is basically the main argument of On Writing Well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49586914)) "Is every word doing new work?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47545229))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Elements of Style by Strunk and White](https://hackerapproved.com/p/elements-of-style.md): 12 recommend
- [On Writing by Stephen King](https://hackerapproved.com/p/on-writing.md): 9 recommend
- [The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sense-of-style.md): 3 recommend
- [Writing for Developers by Scynthia Dunlop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/writing-for-developers.md): 2 recommend
- [The Chicago Manual of Style by University of Chicago Press](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chicago-manual-of-style.md): 2 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/141775057X?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9781417750573) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "On Writing Well by William Zinsser", https://hackerapproved.com/p/on-writing-well/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).