The following is an effort to summarize "The Scandal of Prescriptivism" by David Mulroy.

Currently, there are negative stereotypes associated with those who use grammar incorrectly, and those concerned with correct usage. Most of the grammatical mistakes made today are found within the groups of children, the poor, and minorities. This strengthens the negative stereotypes associated with incorrect grammar usage. Also, those who are preoccupied with correctness are often seen as old, stuck up, and arbitrary. Despite these negative associations, the continuation of a solid, correct dialect is still useful.

Having one accepted appropriate broadens the numbers of people one can effectively communicate with. To understand how that is so, consider what Caxton wrote in the preface to his Eneydos translation, within which a fellow travels not-so-far from home and eventually asks a lady for eggs. The women replies to him that she can not speak French, when in reality, neither of the two could, the lack of understanding spawned from the differences in the English dialects at the time.

The need for a common dialect was and is apparent. In the past, it was difficult attempting to unite everyone under one dialect, until the popularity of dictionaries allowed everyone to study one grammatical dialect.

[Insert quote from Pinker's piece which we have just read for class, then insert a subsequent quote from an Illinois professor by the name of Hook, and finally insert the debilitating counter-points that both writers do not directly cite those whom they attack, but instead use pop-culture references to prove their points, as opposed to the more tasteful use of Bible versus and such.]

Some points that Pinker brought up in opposition to prescriptivist ideas are correct, and some are wrong or inappropriate for the point being made. His idea that we all communicate effectively and grammatically through natural and unlearned methods is denied by the fact that while writing the piece to prove the point, Pinker exhibits appropriate use of punctuation and grammatical features not possibly known with having been taught. The idea that grammar is entirely instinctual is unlikely.

Resulting from the popular fad of bashing grammatical correctness and its being taught, teachers are trained to be nice, and avoid possibly offending children by not correcting their grammatical mistakes.

This is greatly ineffective in continuing a solid central dialect. There is, however, a popular reason for learning our current standard dialect (SWE). It is said that if one wants to make it in the business or academic world, one must understand the language or dialect used by those parties. This is actually a cynical way to look at it, because it assumes that understanding the central dialect has no uses other than to gain popularity with groups (when in fact, there are greater reasons to understand SWE, or whatever the standard is for your language).