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.