ABSTRACT
Joseph M. Williams (1933–2008) and Gregory G. Colomb (1951–2011) played a prominent role in developing the Little Red Schoolhouse writing curriculum at the University of Chicago, a program for advanced undergraduate, graduate, and professional students that emphasized clarity and audience awareness in both academic and professional writing. The development of that curriculum resulted in a series of influential writing handbooks designed to be pragmatic and straightforward, beginning with Williams’s original Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (1981), and leading through numerous collaborations on revised editions, including the widely used 4th Edition, Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace (published after Williams’s death, with introduction by Colomb). Now in its 12th edition (co-authored by Joseph Bizup), Style is distinct in its thorough treatment of writerly choice and audience awareness, avoiding easy platitudes of “right” v. “wrong” while eschewing “the irresistible lure of obscurity” that they found throughout the professional and academic disciplines.
