Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing

In Chapter 9, “Superstitions,” Trimble scrutinizes the “literary prudes” who only accept the strict grammatical rules of formal English (83). He refers to these literary prudes as “The One True English Language Sect,” or TOTELS, a term he seems to have invented himself (84). Trimble dislikes TOTELS and the chokehold they have on the English language.

According to Trimble, TOTELS’ main fallacy is that they believe that language is not dynamic, but a static set of guidelines. Being static, language is never allowed to change, adapt, and morph with society. Trimble believes in the opposite. English, he argues, is dynamic and always changing.

There are seven rules that TOTELS promote:

1. Never begin a sentence with and or but.

Trimble’s rebuttal: It’s perfectly fine, and sometimes useful, to begin a sentence with and or but. Professional writers do it all the time.

2. Never use contractions.

Trimble’s rebuttal: Contractions (can’t, won’t, didn’t) lighten the author’s style, so they are acceptable to use every so often. They offer informality.

3. Never refer to the reader as you.

Trimble’s rebuttal: When authors avoid addressing their reader directly (using you), their writing is too formal.

4. Never use the first-person pronoun, I.

Trimble’s rebuttal: People produce writing, not machines. Therefore, it’s okay to insert the personal pronoun I and acknowledge the author’s presence: “Let us, in short, be ourselves,” he concludes  (90).

5. Never end a sentence with a preposition.

Trimble’s rebuttal: It’s a long-held but untrue superstition that English sentences cannot end in a preposition.

6. Never split an infinitive.

Trimble’s rebuttal: A split infinitive occurs when an author pushes an adverb between the infinitive form of a verb (i.e., to finally decide versus finally to decide). Because split infinitives are common in spoken English and provide English with an easygoing rhythm, their presence in written English is acceptable.

7. Never write a paragraph containing only a single sentence.

Trimble’s rebuttal: “Generally this rule is sound,” he acknowledges, but there are certain cases where a single-sentence paragraph adds a punch, such as newspaper stories (85-93).

Trimble breaks all seven of these rules in Writing with Style and encourages his readers to do the same. In his own attack on TOTELS, Trimble is demonstrating that writing can be fun and witty. The reader gleans a clear sense of Trimble’s personality, another marker of good writing.

In Chapters 10 and 11, which take up a combined four pages, Trimble addresses the topic of revision. He keeps this section short because revising, or proofreading, is the process of repeating the steps he already outlined in earlier chapters. “Proofreading,” he notes, “is like the quality-control stage at the end of an assembly line” (96). The goal of proofreading is twofold: first, to find any grammatical or logical errors, and second, to fix them in a way that makes sense to your reader.

Trimble wants to disavow his reader that good writers are naturally good at writing. More often, good writers are strong editors and proofreaders. All good writing has gone through a process of revisions. College essay writers must learn to do the same.