http://chronicle.com/img/photos/biz/linguafranca-45.pngBy Anne Curzan. I was reminded the other day of two things about prescriptive usage rules: (a) the power that comes with feeling like you know rules of usage that other people don’t (or have forgotten); and (b) the sometimes fine line between a usage rule that promotes standard usage and one that falls into nostalgia, stuffiness, or obscurity. As I’ve written about on Lingua Franca before, I am a fairly meticulous copy editor (or at least I like to think I am). More...