Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing

In “Getting Launched,” Trimble provides nine steps to consider before writing. These steps represent the core of the Trimble’s advice, which he will elucidate throughout the book. The steps are most geared toward college students picking essay or thesis topics, but the professional or advanced writer can use them for their next article, newspaper, blog, or book topic.

Step 1: Choose a topic that sparks passion

Trimble informs his reader that the first and most critical step to writing well is to “Pick a subject that means something to you, emotionally as well as intellectually” (4). Having passion for your subject is Trimble’s most fundamental advice; he “can’t recall a piece of good prose that didn’t reflect it” (4). That passion, he says, could include both positive and negative feelings towards a subject, but both fall under the same umbrella of emotion. In either case, “turn your feelings to account—work in harmony with them and actively tap them” (5).

For example, if an undergraduate student has the option to choose between writing an essay analyzing the work of Mark Twain versus Emily Dickenson, the student should choose the author that most excites them, most interests them, and about which they most immediately feel they have an opinion. Trimble’s advice is simple and clear: “Pick a subject that you have an emotional stake in and write about it just as honestly as you know how” (6).

The opposite of writing with passion—writing with disinterest—will equate to boring, listless, and bad prose. Readers will be suspect of an author that has nothing to say and nothing to argue. On the flip side, if a writer chooses a topic about which they have strong emotions, their passion is likely to overcome writing mistakes, such as poor grammar.

Step 2: Narrow Down Your Topic

Once you have decided on a topic about which you feel passionately, the next step is to narrow that topic down. Trimble uses the term “delimit” to describe the process of how the author decides to approach their subject: “You might decide that it would be interesting to compare X with Y, for example, or X with two other things” (7). Delimiting the topic will determine the author’s approach and organization of the essay.

Step 3: Stockpile Data

Trimble defines data as the facts surrounding a certain topic, including quotations, dates, ideas, or details. Before they ever pick up a pen or write a sentence, all professional writers, according to Trimble, “begin like a miser to stockpile data” (7). Armed with enough solid data, an author can write with confidence: “Moral: If you have just enough solid data to work with, you don’t have enough. If you have a big surplus of data, you are primed to write” (7).

Step 4: Formulate Questions About Your Topic

As an author, it’s not enough to have chosen a topic and then gathered facts—those things will help the writer craft an encyclopedic entry, but not an analytical essay. An essay requires a unique argument, or a personal perspective. Trimble encourages the author to start asking questions of their topic: “Formulate a variety of searching questions,” he says, “both general and specific, such as a tough examiner might ask—Why? What? How? When? Where?—and bombard your subject with them” (7). How you answer those questions will become the body, or the main paragraphs, of your essay. Trimble encourages each author to pose their questions and answers on separate sheets of 5-by-8 note cards, although in the twenty-first century, students may prefer to type them on a computer.

Step 5: Pick a Meaty Argument

After examining each 5-by-8 note card (or Word document), Trimble encourages his readers to find the “meatiest” idea of the bunch (9). By “meatiest” he means choosing an idea that is punchy, clear, and comprehensive. This meaty idea will become the argument or thesis around which the author organizes their entire essay.

It’s important to note that there is a difference between data and ideas. Data, or facts, are the kinds of details that the author gleans from researching a topic—the who, what, where, when, and why. Trimble encourages authors to gather data in Step 3. Ideas, on the other hand, are the author’s original thoughts about a subject. For example, it is a fact to say that Samuel Clemens adopted a pen name, Mark Twain, inspired by his years working on a river boat. It is an argument, or original idea, to say that Samuel Clemens adopted the pen name Mark Twain to shed his identity as a poor, Missouri child into that of a well-traveled, professional writer. Good essays have both data and ideas.

For teachers or students wanting to learn more about the difference between others’ facts and arguments, reference Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s book, They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing.

Step 6: Write a Rough Draft

In Steps 1-5, Trimble has established an entire system of pre-writing: the steps every author should practice when preparing to write: “Now that your mind is properly primed,” he notes, “you are ready to start writing a rough draft” (9). Don’t skip the primer steps, Trimble warns, for rushing them will result in a sloppy, unthoughtful essay—and your teacher, or your reader, will know immediately.

Trimble suggests the author “scribble off two or three quick rough drafts” (9). Be fast, be messy, and do not worry that your first draft is in bad shape. In other words, do not overthink the warm-up draft, it’s meant to be rough: “Most of it will probably be garbage, even with the pre-writing that you’ve done, but that’s to be expected,” Trimble says (9).

To begin writing the first rough draft, jot down your ideas as if explaining them to a friend. Use conversational, accessible language that’s not the “puffed language of academe” (10). As your write, do not pause to edit or correct your writing—let your thoughts and prose flow freely. Revisions come at a later stage.

Step 7: Read the Rough Draft

Read your first draft in 15 minutes or less, examining your ideas critically. “Ask yourself,” Trimble says, “whether one of those good ideas might be the embryo of a still stronger thesis than your original one” (11). Keep the sentences or ideas that appeal to you and remove the ones that don’t.

Step 8: Write a Second Rough Draft

“Now you are ready to being again,” Trimble says. Good writing requires a series of revisions, a key theme that gets at the heart of Writing With Style. There is no way to avoid revisions—they are fundamental to the writing process. In writing a second rough draft, use the same tools adopted in Step 6, but in this second iteration, allot more time to record your ideas. Slow down your pace. However, refrain from editing your writing, still, allow your ideas to flow without returning to check your grammar.

Step 9: Begin to Edit the Second Draft

Upon reading your second draft, Trimble writes that “you’ll have a gut feeling as to whether a third rough draft is required” (11). For most professional writers—journalists, novelists, essayists—more drafts are necessary. If the student feels their second draft is sufficient, Trimble invites them to begin the “editing stage” (11). To begin editing, start by “tinkering” with the opening paragraph, then move onto the body sentences (11). Tinkering includes removing all unnecessary words, ideas, phrases, and passive verbs.

Throughout the remainder of the book, Trimble will dive into this tinkering process.