What I have written

My publications broadly fall into three groups: articles & chapters, reviews, and blogs. Each of these serve different, but complementary purposes. The articles and chapters I write are mainly to communicate within the scientific community. These publications disseminate specialist knowledge – in my case social-historical linguistic knowledge – and require peer reviewing to ensure the high level of quality and reliability associated with scientific research.

The reviews I write are also mainly published in academic journals. However, compared to the articles and chapters, they serve a slightly different purpose. Reviews help to expose the content of others’ publications to a wider audience and help persuade people to read them. I have written blogposts for the blogs of the main research projects that I have been involved with.

Articles & Chapters

The Routledge Handbook of Linguistic Prescriptivism. Co-edited with Joan Beal and Morana Lukač. Routledge. (2023)

Language Standardization. In Aronoff (ed.) Oxford Bibliographies in Linguistics. Oxford University Press. (2019)

Modern English Usage from Britain to America. English Today 34: 4, pp. 1–9. (2018)

The Usage Guide: Evolution of a Genre. In Tieken-Boon van Ostade (ed.) English Usage Guides: History, Advice, Attitudes. Oxford University Press. (2018)

Linguistic Prescriptivism. In Aronoff (ed.) Oxford Bibliographies in Linguistics. Oxford University Press (2017).

A Perspective on Prescriptivism. In Percy & Tieken-Boon van Ostade (eds.) Prescription and Tradition in Language: Establishing standards across time and space. Multilingual Matters. (2016)

Codification of Correctness. In Sturiale & Iamartino (eds.) Language and History 59: 1, pp. 14–24. (19 July 2016)

Attitudes to Prescriptivism: An Introduction. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 37: 3, pp. 233–242 (published online 5 August 2015)

The Hyper Usage Guide of English Database User Manual. Website Bridging the Unbridgeable: linguists, prescriptivists and the general public. (February 2015)

Rules of engagement?. English Today 118. Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 11–12. (8 May 2014)

Joseph Priestley, Grammarian. The Joseph Priestley House Newsletter. (Spring issue 2013)

Long-s in Late Modern English manuscripts (with Lyda Fens-de Zeeuw). English Language and Linguistics. Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 319–338. (2012)

Joseph Priestley, Grammarian. Utrecht: LOT Dissertation Series. (2011)

Deontic and Epistemic Modals as Indicators of Prescriptive and Prescriptive Language. In Tieken-Boon van Ostade & van der Wurff (eds.) Current Issues in Late Modern English, pp. 57–88. Peter Lang. (2010)

Prescription or practice?. In Lenker, Huber & Mailhammer (eds.) English Historical Linguistics 2008: Volume I. pp. 63–78. John Benjamins. (2010)

Reviews

Review of Norms and conventions in the history of English by Bös & Claridge (eds.). English Language and Linguistics (11 August 2020).

Time for a new (but not ‘New’) Fowler. Review of Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage by Butterfield, 2015. English Today. (15 February 2016)

‘The Sense of Style,’ a milestone on winding road to better writing (appeared online under the title Can something be totally unique? Steven Pinker’s new book says yes). The Washington Post. (6 November 2014)

Review of Internet Linguistics by Crystal. English Studies. Vol. 95, No. 5, pp. 590–592. (8 July 2014)

Review of Language and Letters of the Bluestocking Network. English by Sairio. English Studies. Vol. 91, No. 7, pp. 812–813. (27 October 2010)

Review of Corpus-Based Language Studies by McEnery, Xiao & Tono. Language and Literature. Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 394–395. (27 October 2009)

Blogposts

Easylaughs

Seven Tips for Successful Improv Show Photography. Blogpost on photographing improv shows for the English-language improv theatre easylaughs. Improvisers, volunteers, students and crew of Easylaughs share their passion for all things improv on this blog. (23 December 2021)

Bridging the Unbridgeable

This blog provides – but is primarily meant to receive – feedback on all sorts of usage questions, such as why people should object to split infinitives or to the use of like. The blog presents news and information on usage guides, and also invites people to share new developments. I also built this website.

The Codifiers and the English Language (offline)

This project traced different aspects of the process of linguistic influence: between individuals, within social networks, from grammars and grammarians on other grammars as well as on speakers and writers of English. The weblog was used to establish a community of scholars working in the same field but also beyond, primarily to share knowledge with the outside world but also to profit from knowledge of people interested in the project.

Robin Straaijer

making writers better