ALSO BY STEVEN PINKER

Language Learnability and Language Development

Learnability and Cognition

The Language Instinct

How the Mind Works

Words and Rules

The Blank Slate

The Stuff of Thought

The Better Angels of Our Nature

Language, Cognition, and Human Nature: Selected Articles

EDITED BY STEVEN PINKER

Visual Cognition

Connections and Symbols (with Jacques Mehler)

Lexical and Conceptual Semantics (with Beth Levin)

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004

PENGUIN BOOKS

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First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin,

a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2014

Published in Penguin Books 2015

Copyright © 2014 by Steven Pinker

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

Illustration credits

Page 52 : MacNelly editorial, © Jeff MacNelly—distributed by King Features

57 : CartoonStock

61 : James Stevenson / The New Yorker Collection / www.cartoonbank.com

79 : Shoe © 1993 Jeff MacNelly—distributed by King Features

202 : Bizarro used with permission of Dan Piraro, King Features Syndicate and the Cartoonist Group. All rights reserved.

256 and 260 : Ryan North

284 : © 2007 Harry Bliss. Used with permission of Pippin Properties, Inc.

294 : Copyright 2008 by Debbie Ridpath Ohi. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

297 : William Haefeli / The New Yorker Collection / www.cartoonbank.com

298 : Zippy the Pinhead © 1997 Griffith—distributed by King Features Syndicate, world rights reserved

301 : xkcd.com

Credits for certain illustrations appear adjacent to the respective works.

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE HARDCOVER EDITION AS FOLLOWS:

Pinker, Steven, 1954–

The sense of style : the thinking person’s guide to writing in the 21st century / Steven Pinker.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-698-17030-8

1. English language—Style. 2. English language—Grammar. I. Title.

PE1421.P56 2014

808'.042—dc23 2014004509

Cover design: Louise Fili Ltd.

Cover illustration: R. O. Blechman

Version_4

To Susan Pinker and Robert Pinker

who have a way with words 9wyYdbcPKUif3G6WhGvl8I8vjPIUz2sdPTi1QHjsBIo/jK9sseeYjVtrLeNjxW4g