The essay "Authority and American Usage" [1] is an essay concerning prescriptivism vs. descriptivism and the relations between grammar and class/power which (so

The essay "Authority and American Usage" [1] is an essay concerning prescriptivism vs. descriptivism and the relations between grammar and class/power which (somewhat) masquerades as a review of Bryan Garner's A Dictionary of Modern American Usage [2]. This topic naturally includes discussion about the use of Standard Written English (SWE) at university/college level. In one chapter the author talks about how he teaches a remedial English class to instruct students in Standard Written English (SWE), and always begins by stating that while there is nothing incorrect about their own dialects, the fact is (and whether they are happy about it or not) SWE is the only way to communicate on a level playing field, and if they were even to consider trying to change this fact they'd have to argue their points through SWE in the first place in order to be taken seriously. [1] http://wilson.med.harvard.edu/nb204/AuthorityAndAmericanUsage.pdf http://wilson.med.harvard.edu/nb204/AuthorityAndAmericanUsag... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garner%27s_Modern_English_Usage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garner%27s_Modern_English_Usag...