Sanders makes sure to point out that the purpose of the book is not to provide a step-by-step guideline to becoming a successful student, rather he is offering a new way to view and discuss the purpose of a college education and how best to take advantage of educational opportunities. The tone of the essay is very personal. The author addresses the reader directly with the second-person pronoun, “you,” and the language and style is very informal and colloquial. In an interview with the publisher, the author states that he wrote the essay using his “teaching voice,” rather than writing in an academic voice. The simplicity of the language and style makes the essay accessible for a wide audience, especially the targeted audience: incoming freshmen from various and diverse backgrounds.

The first thing the author wishes to make clear is that a college education is not about learning or developing a specific skill set for a specific job, and that college was never designed in this way. The author provides a couple of examples of professionals hiring humanities majors for jobs like computer science, or how the director of a news agency preferred English or philosophy majors over journalism majors.