Never Provoke a Grammarian
At The Chronicle of Higher Ed, Geoffrey K. Pullum declines to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style:
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 never quite “got” The Elements of Style. I was amused by its cranky-old-man tone, but still couldn’t fathom much difference between “that” and “which” except “which” is used after a comma and “that” is not. (Link from Blog of a Bookslut)
April 17th, 2009 at 9:09 am
There was a piece on this on NPR yesterday. Sounds like Pullum has received some rude emails on this issue. Never piss off a grammarian.