The Sense of Style

Great even if a bit jargony

As a scientist I spend much of my time writing scholarly articles. When Pinker, who I admire for his scientific contribution and perhaps even more for his writing skills, wrote this book about writing I was naturally interested. The book’s focus is on the classical writing style which is probably best characterized as a sort of writing philosophy. According to this philosophy your job as an author is to convey something you know to the reader. To do so you must put yourself in the boots of your reader. If you try to explain something in a language (or technical jargon) that your reader does not understand then you will fail. Indeed a good chunk of the book is devoted to the curse of knowledge; you erroneously assume that your reader knows what you know. Pinker gives concrete advice on how to avoid this.

Pinker, I think, is a relatively liberal writer. The focus is, and should be, on what makes your reader understand; not on obsessively following every rule in the rule books. In other words, if you are a language purist who thinks that starting a sentence with “And” is a capital crime, then this book will cause you much suffering.

Having said that, Pinker do devote the last chapter to rules that ought not to be violated unless you really know what you are doing. For instance I learned that I was wrong to use commas when there is just a pause in the spoken sentence. I also learned that: serial commas are a good thing; how to use semicolons; as well as the proper use of many improperly used.

It is a bit ironic that my one problem with the book was that there was too much jargon in it which sometimes made it difficult for me to understand. To me, as a native Swede, it seemed as if Pinker sometimes feel into the knowledge trap that he instructs us to avoid. Maybe it is just me who did not listen carefully on my English lessons, but I would occasionally have liked more information about basic grammar concepts.

Still, all in all this was a worthwhile read which I am sure will help me develop my writing

Excellent Author on Writer's Craft

Steven Pinker brings delight to an amazing breadth of intellectual disciplines. So when I saw he had focused on writing, I had high expectations. They were met.
It isn't your father's writing handbook. (My mother was an English Professor so I have seen quite a few.} Nor is it a how-to technical manual like the Hargrave Handbook.
Instead (like other Pinker books) this works from deep principles, to solve the daunting problems of written communication.
I also bought the book, so I could easily refer back to areas that I want to apply better in my own writing.

A great book, done a great injustice by the audio

What made the experience of listening to The Sense of Style the most enjoyable?

Steven Pinker's wit and explanations, as usual, are astounding. His expansive knowledge and explanations for how to have a sense of style are very helpful, no matter what your profession might be. Even if you "never" write, the book is still an eye opener and even a motivation to pick up writing, whether it be blog posts, letters, articles or books.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Arthur Morey?

Anybody, really

Any additional comments?

The biggest mistake in the book is how it's read. I am sorry if I am doing Mr. Morey an injustice here, but his reading was absolutely horrifying. Ironically, he reads a book about how to write (and which several times mocks things like officialese and legalese), exactly as if he were reading a legal document.

The book is read in a flat monotone that makes it seem as if Arthur Morey was absolutely bored to death. But this is not a book to be bored about, and certainly doesn't deserve this treatment. I will have to re-read the book on my own, simply because I fell asleep far too often during the reading.

Pinker + Morey = Win!

Disclaimer: I'm a huge fan of both Steven Pinker and Arthur Morey, and the combination of excellent writing and perfect narration they represent for me made this an automatic purchase and an easy 5-star rating.

What's more, I'm a language geek. I love grammar. I love writing. A whole book about the way English (note: American English) works, complete with abstruse technical terms and PDF charts, is a delight to me.

I mention all this because The Sense of Style is clearly not everybody's cup of tea, no matter how brilliantly read.

And it is brilliantly read, but still, I had to consult the charts several times, and listen to the whole book twice before some of its more abstract ideas sank in. (Yes, sank. Not sunk.) I thought I was well-versed in English, but Pinker covers a bunch of advanced concepts of language structure and the mind that simply weren't understood way back when I was in "grammar" school. I learned a lot. I'll probably end up buying a visual version for reference.

It's fair to say that Pinker's work is all biased to the political left, and to a liberal and progressive view of the world in general, and language in particular. His cultural references place his origins so squarely in time that I knew he was born in 1954 without checking Wikipedia, and I knew that he tended to the hippie side of the spectrum without looking at a picture of him. He is absolutely not a prescriptive grammarian, and readers interested in a conservative view of language and culture might find this book hard to swallow.

Not me, though. This book immediately changed the way I read, and is having a growing impact on how I write. It confirmed me in some of my language biases, showed me the error of my ways in others, and gave me tools for understanding more clearly than ever what makes bad writing bad and good writing beautiful.

Defence against Grammar Nazis

The content of this book is indispensable, and the narration of the audiobook suits the writing style. If you are looking for help and formulating your writing, and are confused by some of the ambiguous usage advice, you may find resolution and an ally.

More suitable as a regular book

I listened to this book as an audio book, but I would imagine it to be better suited for reading. There are lots of examples of good and bad structuring of sentences, the subtleties and differences of which can be hard to pick up in audio form.

That isn't to say that the narration is bad, in fact, it is quite good. Merely that you'll probably get more out of it in writing.

A stylish read

As an editor, avid reader and occasional writer, I appreciate and agree with most of what Stephen Pinker has to say about the language, the rules that govern it and the myths and misconceptions that surround it. But in the few areas where we disagree, I find his arguments often unconvincing and occasionally hypocritical and even ironic. Even so, I did learn and thing or two, so it was a worthwhile investment of my time. He is a brilliant man.

Great audio book! Will be listening to it again.

This is the first audio book that I have listed to by Pinker. Usually i read his books.

Great book, but a bit too complex for listening

Overall, the book is great. However, some chapters are meant to be read and not listened, as they present complex rules about syntax and grammar.

Lots of useful tips

I would have rated this with 4 overall stars, but it was a bit challenging to listen to this book. Reading it hard copy works have been better. The author is clearly a gifted writer and does an excellent job of writing a style guide so that it is more of a story.