Wednesday, 10 May 2017

from limp platitudes to inconsistent nonsense

Geoffrey Pullum fulminates yet again on the topic of Strunk and White.
50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice 
“Keep related words together” is further explained in these terms: “The subject of a sentence and the principal verb should not, as a rule, be separated by a phrase or clause that can be transferred to the beginning.” That is a negative passive, containing an adjective, with the subject separated from the principal verb by a phrase (“as a rule”) that could easily have been transferred to the beginning. Another quadruple violation.


[h/t BoingBoing]

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