The bestselling linguist and cognitive scientist applies his irreverent wit and gift for explaining difficult ideas to the topic of writing, in a short and entertaining writing guide for the twenty-first century.
Why is so much writing so bad, and how can we make it better? Do people write badly on purpose, to bamboozle their readers with highfalutin gobbledygook? Is the English language being corrupted by texting and social media? Should we bring back the lost art of diagramming sentences? Have dictionaries abandoned their responsibility to safeguard correct usage? Do the kids today even care about good writing? Why should any of us care?
Bestselling cognitive scientist (and award-winning writer), Steven Pinker has a lot of opinions (some controversial) about writing, and in this entertaining , instructive book, he rethinks the usage guide for the 21st century. Rather than carping about the decline of the language or recycling the spurious edicts from the rulebooks of a century ago, he applies insights from the sciences of language and mind to the challenge of crafting clear, coherent, and stylish prose.
Filled with examples of great and gruesome modern prose, without the scolding tone and Spartan tastes of the classic manuals, Pinker shows how the art of writing can be a form of pleasurable mastery and a fascinating intellectual topic in its own right.
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Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books (September 22, 2015)
- ISBN-13: 978-0593434512