The Sense of Style, (Paperback)

from nbmars

Steven Pinker is not only a Harvard professor and the renowned writer of numerous books and monographs on the workings of the mind, he is the chairman of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary-and that should demonstrate his chops to write a book on writing style, or at the very leas...

from DLMorrese

This isn't just a reference book. It's a witty and informative style guide of just over 300 pages that you can read from cover to cover with some measure of enjoyment. Although it is primarily intended for writers of nonfiction, it provides insightful guidance on grammar, punctuation, and word (m...

from ajungherr

Excellent discussion of writing-style, in which the author is not content with offering rules but instead discusses the reasons behind stylistic rules and conventions, debunks disfunctional rules, and most importantly encourages the writer to think pragmatically about word choice, sentence constr...

from faganjc

This book is more of a collection of observations than a systematic style manual. That said, Pinker's background makes his observations highly relevant for me as an academic. I certainly fall into the traps he describes. After reading his description of the Classic Style and its advantages I can ...

from browner56

It is rare to find a reference book-particularly a language style manual-that is interesting and insightful enough to merit reading from cover to cover. However, that is exactly what The Sense of Style proved to be for me. Written by a cognitive scientist with a linguistics background, the premis...