For attacks on the language critics, I would recommend: Jim Quinn -- AMERICAN TONGUE AND CHEEK, Pantheon Books 1980 James Sledd -- "Product in Process: From Ambiguities of Standard English to Issues that Divide Us" College English, 50, 1988 Charles Suhor -- "The Pop Grammarians..." in W. Lutz's BEYOND 1984, NCTE 1989 Dennis Baron -- GRAMMAR AND GOOD TASTE, Yale U Press 1982 Baron gives a history of attempts to prevent new words coming into the language, e.g. the claim that English will die on the vine if we permit "ice tea" (should be "iced tea") Two interesting radical reactions to our national mania over correctness: Zuber & Reed -- "The Politics of Grammar Handbooks: Generic he and Singular they" College English 55, 1993 and McAndrew & Hurlbert -- Teaching Intentional Error in Standard English: A way to "big smart english" -- English Leadership Quarterly (avilable thru NCTE) May 1993 The best contemporary authority for usage issues, in my opinion, is WEBSTER'S DICTIONERY OF ENGLISH USAGE, Merriam-Webster, 1989, available in bookstores for about $21. They've got big files and a lot of smart people behind this book. --Bill Murdick