While Chapter 1 functions as an emergency first-aid clinic, the next two chapters dive into writing as craft. In Chapter 2, “Thinking Well,” Trimble describes what make all great writers great: critical thinking skills. Like the grandmaster chess player, talented writers can intellectually guide their readers, always staying one move ahead. While most other writing books ruminate on the mechanics of writing—namely, grammar—Trimble sets Writing with Style apart by focusing in on the mechanics of good thinking: “My chief aim,” he writes, “both in this chapter and throughout the book, is to help you develop what we might call ‘writer’s sense’” (14).

Trimble differentiates between the unconscious writer and the conscious writer. Novice writers are often unconscious writers. Namely, Trimble argues, they write for themselves alone, forgetting that a reader will eventually have to decipher what it is they’re saying. The unconscious writer “thinks through an idea only until it’s passably clear to him,” which leaves the reader to deal with the gaps in logic, unclear transitions, and vague conclusions (15). In this sense, unconscious writers are childlike, unaware of their readers’ needs: “I have come to the conclusion that the majority of writing problems I encounter in student papers should not be considered problems so much as symptoms,” Trimble says.