A paperweight sits on my desk, I read it often: " 'Good writing is clear thinking made visible,' Bill Wheeler." Perhaps the best example I've seen in a long while is the recent - and controversial - essay by playwright/poet/screenwriter David Mamet in the Village Voice, "Why I Am No Longer a Brain Dead Liberal."
Read it - not so much for political reasons, you may or may not agree with him, but for writing ones. It's worth your time.