The Sense of Style

"The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century Pinker is a dyed-in-the-wool descriptivist, a scientist of language and the mind whose early books debunked dud rules and gently mocked their proponents. But in this book he puts his stickler hat on (he was once the head of the AHD usage panel) and takes the only sensible position: yes, language does have legitimate rules, and here’s how to know which ones are legit. He indulges in a few preferences (singular “data” is common, but he doesn’t like it). But when his “rule” is just a preference, he tells you so; “I’m in a fussy minority, even among scientists.” No fake authority here. Plus, the prescriptive section is just the last third or so of the book; as a bonus, the first two-thirds are an excellent practical guide to understanding how language works in the mind: why certain sentence structures are more effective than others, for example. A great read."