On the goodness of description and evil of prescription The article on grammar suggests in many ways that teaching people how to listen and read is good but teaching them how to speak and write is wicked Linguists are said to be concerned normally with the former implying that there is something abnormal about the latter The notion that we are all culpable when helping people decide how to communicate when seeking such help and when making such decisions ourselves is not only perverse and deplorable but also patently wrong We begin our lives incapable of speech Is it wrong to acquire the ability Is it right to call instruction in the application of the rules of grammar an invalid activity Banning prescriptive grammar from the general article on grammar and suggesting that it is illegitimate are serious mistakes motivated I suspect by timidity laziness irresponsibility and ignorance Only a stubborn intentional dedicated ignorance can maintain that proficiency in English composition must not be taught nor properly called grammar