In this post I attempt to pay tribute to one of my favorite writers and one of my favorite books. Writing lessons from Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.
https://blog.hdansin.com/the-elements-of-miracle
#EBWhite #Charlotte'sWeb #Writing #Blog
The Strunk cost fallacy
Myths have serious sticking power. This is true not just of the myths of antiquity but also of more modern and niche types, like the myths of English usage. It seems that nothing will ever stop people peeving pointlessly about split infinitives, double negatives, passive voice, singular they, &c.
One thing that makes usage myths sticky, and spready, is that when we’ve gone to the trouble of learning something, we’re often reluctant to unlearn it, even in the face of contradictory truth – especially when that knowledge gives us a pleasurable feeling of authority or expertise. Renouncing it means accepting that we’ve wasted our time, so instead we double down.
This makes it a form of sunk cost fallacy or sunk cost effect. The term is from economics but has spread to more general use. I’m about to spread it further, with a goofy twist: Doubling down on a bogus rule of language use because you’ve invested time or cognitive effort into learning it is hereby known as the Strunk cost fallacy (or Strunk cost effect).
Regrettably, there is no way to include E. B. White in the coinage without spoiling the pun, but both he and William Strunk Jr. bear some responsibility for promulgating a range of egregious misunderstandings about English grammar, usage, and ‘correctness’.
The dogmatic tone in those authors’ influential Elements of Style also fuels, among some of its devotees, intolerance of non-standardized dialects and informal varieties of English, because readers gain (or strengthen) the impression that in language use there can be only one right way. This is another fallacy, an insidious and socially toxic one.
If you find evidence that you have a mistaken belief about language use – it happens to us all – then my advice is to heed that evidence. Instead of allowing your defences to reject the possibility that you’ve wasted your time learning and maybe promoting a falsity, embrace the opportunity to revise your beliefs. Don’t fall for the Strunk cost fallacy.
In closing, here’s a related piece of snark:
Accidentally typed “Strunk and Why” and this sums up my feelings better than any tired rant I might muster
— Stan Carey (@stancarey.bsky.social) Oct 16, 2024 at 20:33
(I tried embedding an equivalent Mastodon post, but it didn’t work the way Bluesky’s did. I’m using both platforms for now.)
* * *
A few other coinages you might like: Whom’s Law of Hypercorrection; Indo-European Jones; scary quotes; the apostrophantom; the Typographic Oath for editors.
Wrote about finding myself in E.B. White.
https://joebelknapwall.com/figure-out-who-you-are/#more-1802
As an essayist of much lesser note, I've been revisiting the essays of E.B. White with great delight and satisfaction, and have been pleased that, thus far, I don't find much to object to in modern terms in his work or controversy beyond the cyclicly fashionable disdain for the Strunk & White book, which is understandable mainly if you're the kind of person who takes guidelines as hard rules. He's just such a distinct voice, and a mentor I've never met.
The entire kids’ publishing industry needs this pinned above their desks.
In fact, anyone working with or writing for kids could do with reading it.
E.B. White, author of 'Charlotte's Web' on what adults get wrong when writing for children.
From @mariapopova …
“In 1973…[a] man sent a distressed letter to E.B. White, lamenting that he had lost faith in humanity. The beloved author, who was not only a masterful letter-writer but also a professional celebrator of the human condition & an unflinching proponent of the writer’s duty to uplift people, took it upon himself to boost the man’s sunken heart with a short but infinitely beautiful reply”…
https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/05/06/e-b-white-letters-of-note-book/
#EBWhite #LostFaith #humanity #hope
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere.
-- E. B. White (New Yorker 1943)
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere.
-- E. B. White (New Yorker 1943)
Democracy is based on the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
-- E. B. White
#Wisdom #Quotes #EBWhite #Democracy
#Photography #Panorama #TheMaze #Dollhouse #Canyonlands #Utah
This artwork by @kellybrownsays (on another platform) is perfect and speaks volumes!
h/t to my friend @MikeMayak for the image
#TimWalz #VP #candidate #election2024 #politics #USpol #Harris #book #CharlottesWeb #EBWhite #spider #web
This is NOT the first time #SearsIsland has been targeted with a destructive energy project! Tell #GovernorJanetMills to build the #WindTerminal on #MackPoint, instead of Sears Island. There is federal funding available, so there's NO REASON to be CHEAP (Mills has balked because #Maine would have to clean up #industrial #pollution at Mack Point -- which should be cleaned up anyways!
"The possible industrial development of the island has been a point of controversy for many years. Writer #EBWhite (#CharlottesWeb), a resident of nearby Brooklin, Maine, noted in a 1975 essay for the New Yorker that he had attended an evening forum about a #CentralMainePower Company proposal to construct a #NuclearPower plant on Sears Island. White reported to New Yorker readers that the Central Maine Power Company 'feels very good about nuclear generating plants, is not worried about #radiation or accidents.' [Or rise in sea temperature from heated wastewater causing environmental damage, apparently]. In response to a goat farmer, their spokesman acknowledged #radioactive 'iodine can contaminate milk... [b]ut he was cheerful about the prospect. You would simply put the animals on a controlled diet, he said, and after about forty days the radioactivity would be gone.' [#Hormesis anyone?] Facing #LocalOpposition, the plant was not built."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Island
#Environment #EndangeredSpecies #ProtectSearsIsland #WindTerminal #SandDunes
#Searsport #ProtectWahsumkik #Wahsumkik
#EndangeredSpecies #ProtectTheDunes #GovernorJanetMills #WabanakiAlliance #Wassumkeag
Democracy is based on the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
-- E. B. White
Democracy is based on the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.
-- E. B. White
#Photography #Panorama #ChacoCanyon #PuebloBonito #Ruins #NewMexico
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere.
-- E. B. White (New Yorker 1943)
#Quotes #EBWhite #Democracy #Society
#Photography #Panorama #Panopainting #Protest #MarchForOurLives #Florida
"I write the words that make the barnyard sing.
I write words of love, like 'Some Pig!'
I write the words in my web that catch the flies.
I write the words. I write the words."
https://youtu.be/__7NUrkFirA?feature=shared
#ComplimentACharacterWithASong
#HashtagGames
#CharlottesWeb
#EBWhite
#BarryManilow
I’m again reading Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style.
It’s good to do so every once in awhile; I fall into bad habits.
#writing #EBWhite #ElementsOfStyle
𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊'𝐒 𝐅𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓
