ell, actually, things like that are pretty standard in English-language books, too. A lot of things that I would consider bad grammar are perfectly acceptable in published works. And - I blame Bill Gates! Seriously! Microsoft Word fills my manuscripts with red and green underlines and then tells me solemnly, "There are so many grammar and spelling errors in untitled that Word cannot continue to display them." Some of the so-called "errors" are names; some are typos, and some are perfectly correct constructions. Very few are actual mistakes. For example, in a sentence like "Kiril himself had never seen ..," Word will underline "himself". Every time. It also hates this construction: "Chris bit his lip, then shrugged." Can you see anything wrong with that sentence? No? I can't, either. But Word absolutely hates it.

Thus, we let machines tell us what is acceptable grammar and what isn't. Thus we lose individual voice and style. At least, that's one of causes, IMHO. Just a thought
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