On: English in the Real World

[DieBruderBauer]

You can pull Strunk's from my cold, dead hands.

[emodendroket → DieBruderBauer]

Perhaps one of the biggest blights on English writing instruction that that book isn't just ignored. http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/50years.pdf

[mold_aid → emodendroket]

Yeah I'm always shocked at how frequently it's used by my colleagues. I will say it is used in a lot of non-writing disciplines, but I remember my first English class putting that thing in my hands and ugh.

It's part of a broader issue in writing instruction that mistakes etiquette for style.

[ghaff → emodendroket]

I've read it before. It's a bit of a rant and is also probably a bit unfair--but I'm not sure it's wrong either.

[ranko → emodendroket]

Ironically, it was ignored by the authors in much of their writing, both in "Elements" and other works.

[emodendroket → ranko]

Yes, if they'd followed their own suggestions their writing would not be as well loved as it is.

[jjgreen → DieBruderBauer]

Amusingly, the original PEP-8 had "When writing English, Strunk and White apply" rather than "applies" (so treating "Strunk & White" as a plural). That subsequently corrected to "When writing English, follow Strunk and White".

[troad → DieBruderBauer]

Linguists universally make fun of S&W.

S&W is a series of misinformed and inconsistent stylistic preferences that mediocre English majors use to status signal to other mediocre English majors.

[tuukkah → DieBruderBauer]

The point is that around you and Strunk, the language keeps evolving.

[actionfromafar → DieBruderBauer]

It’s not that good.