On page 147 of my copy of Stephen King’s On Writing are the most important words ever written on the subject: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
I thought about Mr. King’s apothegm when I read yesterday’s entry at the Common Errors in English Usage blog:
“One of the clearest indications that a person reads little and doesn’t hear much formal English is a failure to use the standard preposition in a common expression. You aren’t ignorant to a fact; you’re ignorant of it. Things don’t happen on accident, but by accident (though they do happen ‘on purpose’). There are no simple rules governing preposition usage: you just have to immerse yourself in standard English in order to write it naturally.”
Immerse yourself in standard English. Good advice. Or, as a certain bestselling author might say, “Simple as that.”
