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0 pointsrendall6y ago0 comments

I immediately dismiss as gauche and lacking credibility anyone who even hints at a prescriptivist rule, so my acceptance goes against prescriptivism. These rules make writing unclear, stolid, dull and uninteresting for no real benefit.

In my opinion, parroting prohibitions against split infinitives, ending with a preposition, "snuck is not a word", "'they' is only plural", etc etc not only shows a profound lack of education, this shows an inability to learn, since these so-called "rules" are widely and easily known to be made up whole cloth. To my mind, this is a person who absorbed Elements of Style (perhaps even second-hand from a misinformed high school teacher) and called it a day, believing they understand how English is properly written.

Serious red flag for me.

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asdffdsa6y ago· 1 in thread

"I immediately dismiss as...lacking credibility anyone who even hints at a prescriptivist rule"

Isn't this a prescriptivist rule? Imagine a highly skilled author who recognizes a younger one that misuses a semicolon or has poor grammar; the older says to the younger, "only write with perfect grammar". By doing so, the younger learns more precisely the elements of the English language and the purpose of each device (semicolon, period, comma, etc.). After, the younger becomes a much better writer, and integrates that new knowledge with his or her existing writing. In this way, prescriptivist rules help inexperienced writers hone in on their weaknesses and draw focus to some facet they lack.

Any harsh prescription is kind of a red flag for me, because you have to judge yourself by that harshness (fall on your own sword, so to speak). Or, as what usually happens, hold some hypocritical double standard or semantic loophole which pardons yourself while incriminating others.

rendallOP6y ago

<< Imagine a highly skilled author who recognizes a younger one that misuses a semicolon or has poor grammar; the older says to the younger >>

I cannot imagine a highly skilled author who never employs split infinitives. Show me that person.

Regarding semicolons, here is Kurt Vonnegut's opinion on them: "Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college."

Is that good advice? Perhaps for some writers, it actually is; but it's not about the semicolon, really, but about stilted, bad writing.

<< Isn't this a prescriptivist rule? >>

I was responding to the previous comment "It's also _descriptively_ true that many people regard certain rules as inviolable, which certainly means that prescription is, in some sense, completely reasonable: comply, or we'll refuse to accept you." My direct answer is "It's the prescriptivists 'refusing to accept' who should worry about acceptance, since they are failing on so many levels it's hard to know where to start"

jholman6y ago· 1 in thread

Agreed. Elements of Style is full of errors, some of which are so obviously wrong that even its own authors don't follow them.

searchableguy6y ago

Do you have any good recommendation for improving writing skills?

I picked up elements of style few days ago. I couldn't parse it. I was only able to understood it somewhat through intuition and prior knowledge. The sentences were too confusing, out of the place for me with added jargon and story of the author that I didn't want to know about.

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