I was delighted to discover that William Zinsser, word-guy extraordinaire and author of, among other things, On Writing Well, is now—possibly surprisingly—blogging for The American Scholar.

The column is called “Zinsser on Friday”:

A weekly posting about writing, the arts, and popular culture by William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well, based on a favorite quotation or comment.

Surprising because Zinsser is (quite frankly) really old and I tend not to associate old writers who have as much invested in the form as Zinsser with the Internet. (On the other hand, I hardly imagine that Zinsser himself is doing the posting. But still.)

While people spend a lot of time bemoaning how the Internet is bringing an end to literate civilization, I’ve always held a slightly different view: 1) it’s not people’s level of literacy that’s changing so much as that everyone’s level of literacy is out there for us to see and experience and possibly suffer through, and 2) we are in fact becoming a more, not less text-based society as a result. That’s hardly a ringing endorsement of the web’s effect on culture (particularly reading), but I’m not as doom-and-gloom as the rest.

And with a guy like Zinsser now publishing regularly online, I have hope. We can bring skillful writing into the digital age. It just takes time, and a few good people to lead the way.