THE SENSE OF STYLE

By Steven Pinker. Why is so much writing so bad, and how can we make it better? Rethinking the usage guide for the 21st century, bestselling linguist and cognitive scientist Pinker shows how writing depends on imagination, empathy, coherence, grammatical knowhow, and an ability to savor and reverse-engineer the good prose of others. Filled with examples of both great and gruesome prose, as well as humorous comics that illustrate the absurdity of various modern forms of writing, the guide reveals how the art of writing can be a form of pleasurable mastery and a fascinating intellectual topic in its own right. Grades 9 and up. Index. Glossary. Notes. References. Illustrated. Viking. 359 pages. ©2014.

Look inside this title