White's Style Was Never Liked By Me, Anyway
This article was found to be refreshing by me. :-) Though there were some extreme statements, I appreciated Geoffrey K. Pullum's bravery in exposing Strunk & White's so-called masterpiece as the foolishness that it is. Now if someone would only expose most of the recent academic opinion that's being published as research as foolishness...
5 comments:
You're a wood elf, and you think S&W is foolishness?
Wow... what a thorough explanation of why Strunk & White's book should not be celebrated... i would have liked an alternative suggested though.
I enjoy writing myself, but did not take "full advantage" (to put it mildly) of my education. Where i am actually struggling is actually keeping track of the basics... verbs, nouns, adverbs, etc. I do not say that with pride.
Laedelas - might you be able to suggest an easy to understand tome for the novice writer such as myself?
Anonymous, I do. Some of us Elves care for language--not in the sense that we think we know more than others, but that there is much to be learned by studying all aspects of language. Even Strunk & White couldn't follow their own rules.
Samurai, my response turned into another blog post :-)
Then i shall await your next blog entry... 8)
I've never actually read all of S&W, but I've read parts and I've liked some of their advice. No book should be worshiped as absolute truth, and I love words and writing but hate grammar, but I didn't care for the tone of that article. I've yet to meet people who think that S&W is THE ONLY WAY. It's just a good guide. All grammar guides have pointless information - and if someone wants to write, it becomes even more pointless. They already care about language if the book hasn't been assigned. And if it has? Than it doesn't really matter.
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