On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

by William Zinsser

Webster, long a defender of the faith, muddied the waters in 1961 with its permissive Third Edition, which argued that almost anything goes as long as somebody uses it, noting that “ain’t” is “used orally in most parts of the U.S. by many cultivated speakers.” Just where Webster cultivated those speakers I ain’t sure.