Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing

A comment from a college sophomore inspired Trimble to write this book. After helping the student correct an essay, the student said, “I think what I could use is a good survival kit” (ix). “That remark stayed with me,” Trimble reflects, “for it seemed to sum up the anguish of countless other undergraduates equally bewildered by the basics of expository writing” (ix). So that’s what Trimble set out to create: a survival kit for the average college student, written by a professor for his students.

In Writing with Style, Trimble seeks to reach the average college student who feels lost and bewildered when to comes to writing an essay. Although Trimble is a professor at the University of Texas, he notes that his book is not a traditional, English textbook: “The book is primarily geared to those writers who’ve already been through the textbook mill and who now find themselves hungering for helpful tips, inspiration, and a clear, lively synthesis of the essentials” (x).

Trimble is part of a long lineage of authors who have published on the craft of writing. Texts such as Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, and Haruki Murakami What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir are examples of books that explore the art and lifestyle of being a writer. Included in those books are the authors’ personal journeys, their daily writing schedules, authorial struggles, and thoughts on grammar and prose.

In contrast, Trimble doesn’t delve into his background, but sticks to the fundamentals of crafting a strong essay. He writes as a teacher speaking directly to a student and the reader learns nothing of Trimble’s personal background or professional writing accomplishments. We do not learn what field Trimble teaches in, if he has published other books, or his educational background. This approach sets Writing with Style apart from other instructional books on writing in which authors discuss their personal drafting process, publication journey, and struggles.

Trimble is adamant that his book is not a grammar guide, a category that some of the other books on writing easily fall into. For readers wanting to get into the weeds of written English and its rules, see Theodore Bernstein’s The Careful Writer, which Trimble references in his own work. Another reference is H. W. Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage.

Trimble’s primary readers are college students “lost in the jungles of essay-writing” (x). That said, writers from other backgrounds may be interested in Trimble’s themes—respect for the reader, clear writing is the best writing, choose topics that spark passions, and all writing is rewriting.

There are references in Writing with Style that reveal the book’s age. For example, Trimble refers to using a typewriter and always refers to his reader as “he.”