Praise for The Sense of Style and Steven Pinker

“[ 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

“Pinker’s knowledge of cognitive psychology and linguistics allows him to give well-argued reasons for following or flouting particular rules of usage... . Even though Pinker says that he does not ‘have the desire, to say nothing of the ability, to supplant The Elements of Style ,’ I certainly hope that The Sense of Style will do just that. It will do much good if it finds its way onto the desks of college students, academics, journalists, government officials, or anyone else who wants to write well.”

— The Washington Post

“While 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 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 make this book such a gem.”

— Time

“Pinker’s style guide ... is the effort of a nimble mind to clarify questions of enduring human importance by using the best available methods and information.”

— The Daily Beast

“Pinker’s style, or maybe I should say tone, is cheerful in itself: brisk without bullying, sensible without pedantry, authoritative without pomposity. You sense what a wonderful teacher he must be: brimming over with information, generous with examples, disarmingly amusing... . It’s wonderful to have a book that contains so much and offers its contents with such energy.”

— The American Scholar

“Having conducted research on the mental dynamics of reading and arguing spiritedly that people have been moaning for centuries about the degradation of language—now due to the Internet, television, progress, schools in disrepair, poor parenting, or the simple abandonment of classic, rigid rules—Pinker leads by example. His book’s clear, elegant writing—rendered with nerve and style—is a lesson unto itself.”

— San Jose Mercury News

“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

“Writers of all stripes will make room for [ The Sense of Style ] on their shelves alongside Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style .”

— The Christian Science Monitor ’s Verbal Energy

“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 review)

“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 syntac- tical 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

“Who better than a bestselling 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

“He writes like an angel.”

— The Economist

“What a superb thinker and writer he is ... Pinker is a star, and the world of science is lucky to have him.”

—Richard Dawkins, The Times Literary Supplement (London)

“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