The Sense of Style

The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

By: Steven Pinker

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

A short and entertaining book on the modern art of writing well by New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker

Why is so much writing so bad, and how can we make it better? Is the English language being corrupted by texting and social media? Do the kids today even care about good writing? Why should any of us care?

In The Sense of Style, the bestselling linguist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker answers these questions and more. Rethinking the usage guide for the twenty-first century, Pinker doesn’t carp about the decline of language or recycle pet peeves from the rulebooks of a century ago. Instead, he applies insights from the sciences of language and mind to the challenge of crafting clear, coherent, and stylish prose.

In this short, cheerful, and eminently practical book, Pinker shows how writing depends on imagination, empathy, coherence, grammatical knowhow, and an ability to savor and reverse engineer the good prose of others. He replaces dogma about usage with reason and evidence, allowing writers and editors to apply the guidelines judiciously, rather than robotically, being mindful of what they are designed to accomplish.

Filled with examples of great and gruesome prose, Pinker shows us how the art of writing can be a form of pleasurable mastery and a fascinating intellectual topic in its own right.

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.

Common sense approach that changed my mind

I enjoyed other books by Steven Pinker but this is my favorite. He solved a host of grammar problems for the time being.

I've been corrected on grammar a lot and confused a lot. One can't please everyone unless one never talks.

For Pinker the main thing is communication, not following rules. The rules change; they keep changing.

great read, great advice

this book is worth more than all the composition classes I've had throughout high school and college.

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.

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.