Re: When Grammar Attacks
I don't think you read that article. It's not just about disagreeing with some of the rules in EoS, it's about the fact that the authors were objectively wrong and inconsistent about things they attempted to describe. Notably the passive voice.
I fundamentally 'disagree' with prescriptivism overall, although I recognize that any of those resources can provide some useful tips and rules of thumb for beginning writers, as long as they're taken with at least a grain of salt. None of those, however, are really guides to grammar as such. They're more along the lines of rhetoric handbooks or style guides. In fact, as a fairly well-researched descriptive dictionary, the OED could arguably actually be a better guide to natural grammar than any of those books, simply because it's more authoritative.
A fun fact is that "comma splice," according to most style guides, would not be hyphenated. In either case, it's only a rule if you're being paid or graded to treat it as such.
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