I’m just now getting around to Steven Pinker’s The Language Instinct, published in 1994. (Hey, I’ve been working two jobs, and there were all those offspring to educate — well, two, but they were expecting to be fed and clothed as well.) And a line in the first chapter clarified what I’m trying to do here.

In writing about the grammar of language, Pinker says, he does not mean “pedagogical or stylistic ‘grammars,’ which are just guides to the etiquette of written prose.”

This is an etiquette blog. Remember, I don’t care how you talk. Or your e-mails or text messages or personal correspondence of any kind. I am trying to persuade you to mind your manners when you write for publication.

Seeing the issues gum over here as questions of etiquette is refreshingly clarifying. We don’t have to deal with any nonsense about the English language “decaying.” We don’t have to carry on as if journalists’ many solecisms threatened the foundation of the Republic. We can keep the issues in perspective.

All the same, seeing the issues here as matters of etiquette does not mean that they are trivial. Look at “Ask Amy.” Manners count for something. Your rudeness and self-absorption can push your spouse away from you. Your inconsideration and boorishness and questionable hygiene can alienate your colleagues.

Manners count in writing as well. When you write for publication, you are imposing on another’s time and attention. Being accurate and being clear are like wiping the mud off your shoes before entering the reader’s house. What you write either contributes to the collective civility of public discourse or detracts from it. You have, as Highlights should have telegraphed to you from an early age, the choice of being Goofus or Gallant.

The copy desk, by the way, can see which you are.