Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing

After analyzing an essay’s opener, middle, and closer, Trimble homes in on sentences and individual words choices, or what he calls diction. When it comes to words, Trimble’s main argument is this: Use them thriftily. If something can be said clearly in five words versus 10, say it in five. He provides these examples:

Too Lengthy                              Thriftier Option

In the event that                         If

In order to                                  To

For the reason that                     Since

One in the same                         The same

He speaks with great bitterness  He speaks bitterly (60).

Pair down your words—longer is never better. “A good writer,” he explains, “will perform this kind of operation on every sentence, going back over them again and again, laboriously, even obsessively, until he is satisfied that he cannot make his phrases any more succinct without sacrificing clarity” (61). Likewise, being thrifty with your words is respectful to the reader’s time and energy—a key theme in Writing with Style.

Another marker of good diction is an author’s use of active verbs, or what Trimble calls vigorous verbs. By definition, “A verb is considered ‘active’ when its subject is the actor doing whatever action the verb is describing.” When sentences have active verbs, the author is displaying active