Okay. I had my moment where I actually defended the prescriptivits. Well, it's over!
Just today my editor became all prescriptive with "too many commas," "not enough commas," etc. But this one reallly killed me. I used too many surelys and certainlys, which in itself was nonsense because I didn't. However, he said that surely and certainly are just too subjective. And on it went down hill from there. The arrogance was palpable. "I am better than you because I know how to use commas."
All I can say is that I have (as have others) read some of his work, and let's say that it is far from stellar and leave it at that. Not that everyone has to be a good writer, but if you are going to criticize others, you'd better at least be a role model in what you complain about!
I am back in the saddle again with the descriptivists. Sorry for the deter!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I used to have a boss who would do such things with every little bit of writing I did - evaluations of my staff, etc. Boy, it was annoying! She'd make me change the document if she felt I had too many contractions (or too few). I'm so glad she's moved on to another company!
I so wish this person would move! I suspect it will be a real challenge because he doesn't know nearly as much about grammar as he thinks he does!
Thanks, Cat!
Post a Comment