English teachers should stop citing Strunk and White as authorities on correct English usage.
By
D'Archangel
on February 26, 2007
Seriously, stop making our kids stupid.
I refer to the obnoxious habit of treating Elements of Style as an inerrant, prescriptive document, a habit which keeps cropping up even though most of the "rules" are insane.
D'A
Agreed
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This claim was inspired by
- D'Archangel's comment on "they [used as a gender-neutral third person singular pronoun] is considered grammatically correct by linguists in terms of modern common usage." - Cobra Baghdad
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Discussion (3)
There are no "authorities" on English usage, IMHO. The Elements of Style is often helpful and interesting, but it shouldn't have the final say.
Given that the authors of Elements of Style don't follow their own rules, because their own rules don't work - yes.
please tag "grammar, foolish consistency" and possibly a bunch of other things relevant to recent conversation.