"trace of effort" is a grammatically correct phrase and can be used in written English.
It refers to a small or subtle indication of effort or work put into something. Example: Despite his nonchalant attitude, there was a slight trace of effort in the way he presented his project, indicating that he had put in some work behind the scenes.
They show no trace of any effort by the international committee's headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, to distance itself from the Iraqi committee and its head, despite years of reports by Western human rights organizations that the Baghdad building was being used for torture and killing.
States can spend years in maximalist positions before getting down to any business: witness, tragically, the climate negotiations, which hopefully will bear fruit in Paris this December; or depressingly, the World Trade Organisation's Doha trade round which has sunk without trace after years of effort.
(A phantom trace of Almodóvar's effort could be seen in "The Skin I Live In": the Spanish edition of Munro's collection appears in one scene).
But Reiner conducts a fleet, supple and thoroughly engaging performance, bringing shape and sweep to the phrasing, without a trace of self-conscious effort.
Lying along important trade routes connecting southern and eastern Asia to Europe and the Middle East, Afghanistan has long been a prize sought by empire builders, and for millennia great armies have attempted to subdue it, leaving traces of their efforts in great monuments now fallen to ruin.
Within twenty years his style was considered hopelessly outdated and owners of his works sought to eradicate all traces of his efforts.
The story line of "24" will trace the efforts of a C.I.A. agent, played by Kiefer Sutherland, to thwart a plot to assassinate a presidential candidate.
With each portrait, Becerra draws on history to trace the efforts of these activists and the connections between past and present.
The illustrated novel La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana (2004; The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana) traces the efforts of a book dealer to reconstruct his life having suffered amnesia following a coma through reviewing literature and periodicals from his youth.
