[arduanika]

I'm not appealing to them out of nowhere. I'm rejecting Pullum's dismissal of them at the end of TFA. You can learn a lot more from them, than from what I've seen of this blog.

As to this new link...what a load a willful misrepresentations. Misses the point entirely. The rules in PatEL are not literal laws. They are merely pointing the way toward something.

For example, from the very top:

> So, Orwell writes "it is generally assumed", which is passive. Why didn't he say "people generally assume", or "we generally assume", both of which are perfectly grammatical...

Beaver's proposed variants are also passive, spiritually, in my sense above. Who is "we"? A good author chooses between these not based on which one is literally passive, but on other considerations like flow and sound.

Maybe there are Orwell fans out there who have read PatEL too literally, and need to be disabused? Maybe this blog is good for those kinds of people? But from what I've seen so far of LL, it's a bunch of smug dunks that nobody asked for.

[tptacek]

Fair enough! I'm just saying it's one of the notable beats LL has, is poking holes in Strunk and Orwell.

[arduanika]

I suppose I can understand the impulse. It's fun to tear down idols, and sometimes necessary.

As I said in a different comment, I'll try to come back to LL with an open mind some other time, hopefully on a different topic.