atw: Re: "50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice"

Hi Geoff - 

I think 'EOS versus desk-thudder' is really what's on offer. Pullum doesn't 
offer an alternative to EOS, and that curious 'lifetime of serious study' 
business at the end of the article suggests to me that he would be 
uncomfortable with any _little_ book. (Though to be fair, elsewhere he has good 
things to say about Joseph Williams's _Style: Toward Clarity and Grace_.) 

Prescripto versus descripto: I would class myself as a moderate descriptivist, 
but I'm very comfortable with the perceived bossiness of EOS. The shorter the 
book, the less room there is for hedging and explaining. If I wrote a long book 
on technical writing it would be infused with the spirit of "It depends", but 
if I wrote a five-page writing guide for engineers, it would necessarily 
contain don't-do-this prescriptions and sound bossy. It's not because I think 
my guidelines have the force of laws of physics. 

I agree with your recommendation of Crystal and Peters. I thoroughly enjoyed 
Crystal's _The Stories of English_ and the first third of Peters's _The 
Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage_ (no spoilers, please!). 

Stuart

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