- Geoggrey K. Pullum in The Chronicle of Higher Education on what’s wrong with Strunk & White:
The book’s toxic mix of purism, atavism, and personal eccentricity is not underpinned by a proper grounding in English grammar. It is often so misguided that the authors appear not to notice their own egregious flouting of its own rules. They can’t help it, because they don’t know how to identify what they condemn.
I’ve never even owned a copy. I’ll refer on occasion to my trusted Chicago Manual — or the APA Manual, which is the style guide we use at work — but mostly I just wing it, grammatically. [via]
- Meanwhile, a defense of adverbs. I usually don’t have a problem with them, unless they’re overused and don’t actually tell the reader anything, a la J.K Rowling’s favored “darkly.” [via]
- John Klima on editing and the value thereof. I love the proliferation of small fiction markets, mostly online, but I think some of them do a disservice to the field and writers by accepting everything they get, by not properly editing. If you’re just filling pages (paper or electronic), why even bother?
- Well this is potentially terrifying [via]:
Patrick Haggard, a neuroscientist at University College London, says the experiment breaks ground because it pinpoints volition to a specific part of the brain, allowing scientists to experimentally control it.
- And finally, pick one. Gets harder to decide, doesn’t it? [via]