Re: The Source of Bad Writing - WSJ

[Debra Kahn <kahndebra -at- gmail -dot- com>]

For some reason, my last post didn't go through. Here it is again.

I, too, read the WSJ article as well as the WSJ review of Pinker's book 
(along side that of grammarian Neville Martin Gwynne) and the Q&A with 
Pinker in today's NYT's book review.

See the WSJ book review here: 
http://online.wsj.com/articles/book-review-gwynnes-grammar-by-n-m-gwynne-the-sense-of-style-by-steven-pinker-1411765107.

See the NYT's Q&A here: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/books/review/steven-pinker-by-the-book.html?_r=0.

Pinker appears to be an interesting fellow, who likes to stir things up. 
Without having read any of Pinker's books (and so relying on this 
current crop of articles), two things strike me about this 
psycholinguist: He hasn't read many of the classics of modern (post 18th 
century) literature. And he considers tech writers to be plaid-wearing 
babblers, which means that he seems also to have missed the increasing 
influence that usability testing and user experience (UX) awareness has 
had on the profession over the past two decades.

I might lack context here, but, then, in some ways so does he. And isn't 
plaid "in" again this year?

Sunday thoughts...
Deb K

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On 9/28/2014 7:26 PM, Peter Neilson wrote: