A forum for discussing matters of moment, from a curmudgeonly perspective. (The ideas posted here do not necessarily represent those of any organization with which I am a part). Rude and insulting remarks will not be published, but civil disagreement is welcome.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
The Accidents of Style
From Charles Harrington Elster, The Accidents of Style: "What readers crave is writing that respects their intelligence, not writing that mimics their vulgarisms" (p. 35). I recommend this careful, witty, and needful corrective to sloppy writing.
That quote by itself is excellent and 100% true, but it's hard to respect a writer with a sloppy knowledge of the English language who merely piles up the nonsensical prescriptive poppycock page after page. Anyone can write book on how to write well if they simply steal all of the silly rules that numerous (anti-)grammarians have been making up without empirical evidence for the past century or so.
That quote by itself is excellent and 100% true, but it's hard to respect a writer with a sloppy knowledge of the English language who merely piles up the nonsensical prescriptive poppycock page after page. Anyone can write book on how to write well if they simply steal all of the silly rules that numerous (anti-)grammarians have been making up without empirical evidence for the past century or so.
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