Reading the books “They Say I Say” and William Zinsser has changed me both as a reader and a writer in interesting ways. From the start of my FIQWS class of my first semester, I thought that reading these books would tell us what I would already know about writing from my highschool experience in english class. But overtime, I realised that these books were teaching us the importance of writing on a different level. The class started off by reading the book “They Say I Say” which was assigned by our teacher Professor Nathan. Reading this book, by each chapter, helps me with regulating the way we write so that our research paper was drafted a certain way. As a class, we started reading from the prologue, which gave us a little intro on what was going to be introduced in the book. When I started reading “They Say I Say”, I noticed how different the way I used to write in highschool to the people who write now. As I reached the end of the book, I realised that it was more to it than just a topic. It was about taking commitment in what you’re writing and using all the knowledge that you know about your topic to make it more interesting to readers when writing, which I feel like it’s the overall theme of this book. I feel like this book teaches us ways to sound more compelling so that it isn’t easy to bore the readers. For example, the author used “quotation sandwiches” as a way to use examples from texts and being able to explain what they are saying, in other words. The author also incorporated templates to show us examples of each point he was trying to make in the text. It was very helpful in the way he explained his points and helped me develop as a writer as well. The other book on William Zinsser, was about the overall structure of writing. The book taught me more about adding style to your writing and learning the basic notes of tone and how it carries the message throughout your writing. Reading this book, showed me that writing includes your voice and not just what others have said on the topic. It shows us that readers have to be engaged in order to continue reading your work so the more your work is compelling, the more interested the readers will be. Overall, reading both books has taught me a lot about becoming a better writer. I feel like the way I write has changed after reading both books in a way that I never thought I could do. There’s more to it than just a topic but most importantly, you have to expand your thinking and explain your topic more in detail in order to complete a good look of a writing piece. You have to think about your audience as well which involves questions like “who’s my intended audience?”. Why would they care about what we have to say and what could I do to make my writing sound interesting overall?. Those questions help me develop a voice to my writing pieces in which it speaks the language of who my audience might be. As writers, we start to realize the importance of writing and see the aspects of it too.