The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century - Softcover

Pinker, Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241957710 ISBN 13: 9780241957714

Publisher: Penguin, 2015

Synopsis

Steven Pinker, the bestselling author of The Language Instinct, deploys his gift for explaining big ideas in The Sense of Style - an entertaining writing guide for the 21st century

What is the secret of good prose? Does writing well even matter in an age of instant communication? Should we care? In this funny, thoughtful book about the modern art of writing, Steven Pinker shows us why we all need a sense of style.

More than ever before, the currency of our social and cultural lives is the written word, from Twitter and texting to blogs, e-readers and old-fashioned books. But most style guides fail to prepare people for the challenges of writing in the 21st century, portraying it as a minefield of grievous errors rather than a form of pleasurable mastery. They fail to deal with an inescapable fact about language: it changes over time, adapted by millions of writers and speakers to their needs. Confusing changes in the world with moral decline, every generation believes the kids today are degrading society and taking language with it. A guide for the new millennium, writes Steven Pinker, has to be different.

Drawing on the latest research in linguistics and cognitive science, Steven Pinker replaces the recycled dogma of previous style guides with reason and evidence. This thinking person's guide to good writing shows why style still matters: in communicating effectively, in enhancing the spread of ideas, in earning a reader's trust and, not least, in adding beauty to the world. Eye-opening, mind-expanding and cheerful, The Sense of Style shows that good style is part of what it means to be human.

About this title

Review

Praise for The Sense of Style

"[The Sense of Style] is more contemporary and comprehensive than "The Elements of Style," illustrated with comic strips and cartoons and lots of examples of comically bad writing. [Pinker's] voice is calm, reasonable, benign, and you can easily see why he's one of Harvard's most popular lecturers."
--The New York Times

"Pinker's linguistical learning...is considerable. His knowledge of grammar is extensive and runs deep. He also takes a scarcely hidden delight in exploding tradition. He describes his own temperament as "both logical and rebellious." Few things give him more pleasure than popping the buttons off what he takes to be stuffed shirts."
--The Wall Street Journal

"[W]hile The Sense of Style is very much a practical guide to clear and compelling writing, it's also far more.... In the end, Pinker's formula for good writing is pretty basic: write clearly, try to follow the rules most of the time--but only the when they make sense. It's neither rocket science nor brain surgery. But the wit and insight and clarity he brings to that simple formula is what makes this book such a gem."
--Time.com

"Erudite and witty... With its wealth of helpful information and its accessible approach, The Sense of Style is a worthy addition to even the most overburdened shelf of style manuals."
--Shelf Awareness

"Forget Strunk and White's rules--cognitive science is a surer basis for clear and cogent writing, according to this iconoclastic guide from bestselling Harvard psycholinguist Pinker... Every writer can profit from--and every writer can enjoy--Pinker's analysis of the ways in which skillfully chosen words engage the mind."
--Publishers Weekly (starred)

"Yet another how-to book on writing? Indeed, but this is one of the best to come along in many years, a model of intelligent signposting and syntactical comportment...Pinker's vade mecum is a worthy addition to any writer's library."
--Kirkus Reviews

"In this witty and practical book on the art of writing, Pinker applies insights from the sciences of language and mind to the crafting of clear, elegant prose: #requiredreading."
--Publishers Weekly, PW pick Fall 2014 Announcements

"Who better than a best-selling linguist and cognitive scientist to craft a style guide showing us how to use language more effectively?"
--Library Journal

"[A] dense, fascinating analysis of the many ways communication can be stymied by word choice, placement, stress, and the like. [Pinker's] explanations run rich and deep, complemented by lists, cartoons, charts on diagramming sentences, and more."
--Booklist

"This book is a graceful and clear smackdown to the notion that English is going to the proverbial dogs. Pinker has written the Strunk & White for a new century while continuing to discourage baseless notions such as that the old slogan should have been 'Winston tastes good AS a cigarette should.'"
--John McWhorter, author of Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue and The Power of Babel

"Great stuff! Only Steven Pinker could have written this marvelous book, and thank heaven he has. 'Good writing can flip the way the world is perceived, ' he writes, and The Sense of Style will flip the way you think about good writing. Pinker's curiosity and delight illuminate every page, and when he says style can make the world a better place, we believe him."
--Patricia T. O'Conner, author of Woe Is I and, with Stewart Kellerman, Origins of the Specious

Praise for The Better Angels of Our Nature

"A supremely important book...a masterly achievement."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Masterly."
--The Wall Street Journal

"One of the most important books I've read--not just this year, but ever."
--Bill Gates

Praise for The Stuff of Thought

"Packed with information...Clear, witty, attractively written."
--The New York Review of Books

"A display of fiercely intricate intelligence."
--The Times (London)

"Engaging and provocative . . . It's good to have a mind as lively and limpid as his bringing the ideas of cognitive science to the public."
--Douglas Hofstadter, Los Angeles Times

"Curious, inventive, fearless, naughty."
--The New York Times

Praise for The Blank Slate

"Sweeping, erudite, sharply argued, and fun to read . . . also highly persuasive."
--Time

"Ought to be read by anybody who . . . thinks they already know where they stand on the science wars. . . . It could change their minds."
--The Economist

"Pinker is a star, and the world of science is lucky to have him." --Richard Dawkins

-- quotes

From the Back Cover

What is the secret of good prose? Does writing well even matter in an age of instant communication? Should we care? In this funny, thoughtful book about the modern art of writing, Steven Pinker shows us why we all need a sense of style.

More than ever before, the currency of our social and cultural lives is the written word, from Twitter and texting to blogs, e-readers and old-fashioned books. But most style guides fail to prepare people for the challenges of writing in the 21st century, portraying it as a minefield of grievous errors rather than a form of pleasurable mastery. They fail to deal with an inescapable fact about language: it changes over time, adapted by millions of writers and speakers to their needs. Confusing changes in the world with moral decline, every generation believes the kids today are degrading society and taking language with it. A guide for the new millennium, writes Steven Pinker, has to be different.

Drawing on the latest research in linguistics and cognitive science, Steven Pinker replaces the recycled dogma of previous style guides with reason and evidence. This thinking person's guide to good writing shows why style still matters: in communicating effectively, in enhancing the spread of ideas, in earning a reader's trust and, not least, in adding beauty to the world. Eye-opening, mind-expanding and cheerful, The Sense of Style shows that good style is part of what it means to be human.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0241957710
• ISBN 13: 9780241957714
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368