Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing (2nd Edition) [Paperback]

John R. Trimble (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0130257133 | ISBN-13: 978-0130257130 | Publication Date: January 6, 2000 | Edition: 2

A storehouse of practical writing tips, written in a lively, conversational style. Readers lean to develop a “writer's sense” : the book demonstrates that writing is really applied psychology since it is essentially the art of creating desired effects. Provides an explanation of what effects are desirable and how to create them. An exceptional book that works successfully on several levels simultaneously. Provides new insight into: how to generate interesting ideas and get them down on paper; how to write a critical analysis; how to write a crisp opener; how to invigorate a banal style; how to punctuate with confidence; how to handle various conventions, and much more. For anyone who needs a reference guide on writing.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

A concise, witty, practical book on style that is as entertaining as it is genuinely instructive. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

"Books on writing tend to be windy, boring, and impractical. I intend this one to be different - short, fun, and genuinely useful."

Writing with Style is certainly that. In this fast-moving guide, John Trimble masterfully equips you with all the essentials you need to be a confident, self-sufficient writer. He takes the mystery out of how skilled writers actuallly think, explains why the fundamentals are so fundamental, arms you with dozens of practical writing tips, and liberates you from the straitjacket of outmoded stylistic taboos. He even manages to make common sense out of punctuation.

Best of all, Trimble's style is as fresh as his approach - in fact, his style is a superb example of all that he is trying to convey on the art of writing.

In this Silver Anniversary Edition, additional words of wisdom are included and, for the first time, an index has been added. The second edition will continue to be an indispensable classic reference for the next 25 years.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 198 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 2 edition (January 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130257133
• ISBN-13: 978-0130257130
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent (though not perfect), January 5, 2001

By 

Matthew Cheney (New Hampton, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This is a fine book, and I'm surprised it's not better known. More useful than Strunk & White, less intimidating than Joseph Williams, it is the single best book for someone who is looking to improve their writing beyond spelling and grammar. With clear, succinct, and witty chapters on subjects which other books go overboard on -- beginnings, middles, and ends; diction; punctuation; revising and proofreading -- there is no better introduction to the art (beyond the craft) of writing. There are useful tips on usage and superstitions ("never use contractions", "never split an infinitive", etc.) as well as a twenty-five-page collection of quotes from writers about writing. Many of the points which Trimble considers most important are highlighted in boxes separate from the text, so if you're in a hurry and looking for the meat of a chapter, it's easy to find.

This is not a perfect book, though, an it's not intended to be encyclopedic, so you won't find answers to all your questions. The chapter on writing a critical analysis is tantalizingly useless and seems like an afterthought (although it was included in the first edition). The "Quoting" chapter is useful if you're not doing academic writing, but the book seems aimed at an academic audience, and such audiences mostly need to know the details of citing sources through the MLA , APA, or Chicago styles. (On the other hand, Trimble has some interesting tips on using quotes in your writing.)

If you're an experienced writer, you won't find anything new here. That's okay, though. Few of the ideas Trimble explores have ever been stated more clearly or gracefully. What he lacks in depth he makes up for in style, and since many books which are about style are not written with it, it's nice to encounter a text which is so pleasant to read. The best chapter, to my mind, is the first: "Thinking Well". Plenty of books talk about this subject, or pass over it quickly, or allude to it, but I don't know of any which give it the importance it deserves aside from this book, and I've never seen the case stated with, simultaneously, such practicality and eloquence. It is the meeting of those two qualities which makes Trimble's book unique.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for anyone interested in 'Writing with Style', January 19, 2001

By 

Jeffrey Wolf "postgraduate" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

Everyone knows about and owns a copy of Strunk and White, but I found this little book by Trimble to be a lot more useful and probably more relevant to writing today.

If I were to teach a writing course (unlikely as it sounds), I'd be sure to have all my students buy a copy of this to supplement their writing practice.

The highlight of this book, I think, is Trimble's comments on style. He has a great chapter on 'Superstitions' of writing. Still think that you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition? Not so. The best response to someone who insists that you should is to tell the short anecdote about Churchill, as Trimble does: "When the prime minister--a Nobel Laureate in literature--found that an editor of his memoirs had had the cheek to 'correct' one of his sentences ending in a preposition, he wrote back, 'This is the kind of impertinence up with which I shall not put.'"

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A slim, seminal volume, March 31, 2000

By 

Eric P. Perramond "Don Perrito" (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This book was assigned in a graduate-level research methods class in geography. I generallly do not hold much hope for writer's "manuals," but Trimble's slim volume is so much more. His own writing is clear, honest, and pithy. I make all of my senior research students read it now, as a professor, and it's by far the best small treatise on the subject. It could be used side-by-side with Strunk&White's Elements of Style seamlessly. Get it!