[geeks] Someone, please teach the English to speak English!

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 @ 16:03 -0400, der Mouse said:

> > Only in formal communications.  [...]
> > Little, Brown, 3rd edition, page 281.
> 
> Fine.  Go ahead and be sloppy, you and everyone else who thinks
> "descriptive" authority is a suitable reference for correctness.  

English is a bastardized, inelegant, rough flowing, and self-inconstent
language. *ALL* English references are descriptive by nature. The cat
was out of the bag long before anyone tried to properly train it.

Little, Brown is about writing. It is foolish to claim it isn't a valid
reference when it says the same information as any other English
references.

The main differnce is that it also happens to have rules for good
writing, and correctly notes that sometimes the formal rules do not
apply, and also spends time showing you how to get around problems with
English.

-- 
shannon /     Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst 
-------'      his books For to you kingdoms and their armies are
              mighty and enduring,  but to him they are but toys of
              the moment to be overturned by the flicking of a finger.