Linguistics, Style and Writing in the 21st Century - with Steven Pinker
Why Writers Stack Exchange recommends it
Writers Stack Exchange answerers point people to it as an evidence-based counterpoint to style manuals and as a discussion of why style and craft matter.
Recommended by 3 people across 3 different months, 2017 to 2021.
What it is
A Royal Institution talk by Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, introduced by Melvyn Bragg, drawing on his book The Sense of Style. He argues that good writing still matters in the age of instant communication and replaces rote style-guide dogma with findings from linguistics and cognitive science.
What people said
Strong rec Gabriel · 2021-05 · Writers Stack Exchange · on “Learning from Books”
Learning your Craft Matters The sources that I'll refer to in a second and I agree with you: simply being exposed to writing is not enough to master the craft of writing. You also need clear concepts. Learning Classic Style Some of the answers here refer to 'style' guides. Most of these texts assume that style is superficial, in that changing words or their order can define a style. This definition of style, as something superficial, is evaluated critically in Clear and Simple as the Truth [LINK] by Francis-Noël Thomas and Mark Turner. They propose that style is fundamentally about the answer to a series of questions such as "Who is the speaker?" "Who is the audience?" "Is truth knowable?" "
Recommends Nick Bedford · 2017-09 · Writers Stack Exchange · on “Why are writers so hung up on "show versus tell"?”
You might be interested in watching this talk by Steven Pinker on linguistics, style and writing in the 21st century. [this video]
Recommends sigvaldm · 2019-05 · Writers Stack Exchange · on “What are the most common style manuals?”
Not a style guide, but for adding nuance to this discussion I'd like to suggest the talk "Linguistics, Style and Writing in the 21st Century" by Steven Pinker, held at the Royal Institution [this video] . Summary: Does writing well matter in an age of instant communication? Drawing on the latest research in linguistics and cognitive science, Steven Pinker replaces the recycled dogma of style guides with reason and evidence. [...] Steven argues that 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. Steven Pinker is an experimental psychologist and one of the world’s foremost writers on lan