Wikipedia:Identifying and using style guides: Difference between revisions

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=== Grammars ===
Finally, there are {{em|grammars}} of English,{{efn|In this sense, "a grammar" means 'a published study of grammar; a grammar book'.}} which sometimes cover a few style matters, but they're [[Linguistic description|descriptive]] works – about everyday usage for learners, or in serious [[linguistics]] terminology (depending on the publication in question) – not [[Prescriptive grammar|prescriptive]] style manuals. Our MoS generally does not deal with grammatical matters, strictly speaking. Wikipedia trusts that our editors already [[Wikipedia:Competence is required|have that under their belt]].
 
High-quality grammars of English are, however, very good sources for use in articles on the English language. They are mostly secondary and to an extent tertiary sources, written by actual language experts. They should take precedence over individual monographs and other prescriptive matter. For example, no amount of punditry against split infinitives and sentence-terminating prepositions can evade the well-studied linguistic fact that there are features of the language; their deployment or condemnation is primarily a matter of [[Register (sociolinguistics)|register of use]], not of "correctness".