Paraphrasing

"Most writers don't initially say what they want to say, or say it as well as they could. The newly hatched sentence almost always has something wrong with it. It's not clear. It's not logical. It's verbose. It can be read in several ways. It doesn't lead out of the previous sentence. It doesn't... The point is that clear writing is the result of a lot of tinkering.

Many people assume that professional writers don't need to rewrite; the words just fall into place. On the contrary, careful writers can't stop fiddling. I've never thought of rewriting as an unfair burden; I'm grateful for every chance to keep improving my work. Writing is like a good watch--it should run smoothly and have no extra parts. Students, I realize, don't share my love of rewriting. They think of it as punishment: extra homework or extra infield practice. Pleaseâ?"if you're such a student--think of it as a gift. You won't write well until you understand that writing is an evolving process, not a product. Nobody expects you to get it right the first time, or even the second time.

What do I mean by 'rewriting'? I don't mean writing one draft and then writing a different second version, and then a third. Most rewriting consists of reshaping and tightening and refining the raw material you wrote on your first try. Much of it consists of making sure you've given the reader a narrative flow he [sic] can follow with no trouble from beginning to end' (p. 85).

Excerpted from the sixth edition of William Zinsser's classic 2005 guide to writing, On Writing Well, published in New York by Quill.

1.You are to paraphrase Zinsser's original passage above and in so doing, you must incorporate one direct quote. Please aim for five to seven sentences, or one paragraph. Also cite the author, date, and page number in an APA style reference, and include an APA reference entry at the end.