One variety of English, often referred to as “standard” or “standard academic,” is taught prescriptively in schools, represented in this and most other textbooks, used in the national media, and written and spoken widely by those wielding the most social and economic power. As the language used in business and most public institutions, standard English is a variety you will want to be completely familiar with—while recognizing that it is only one of many effective and powerful varieties of our language.

Even standard English is hardly a monolith, however; the standard varies according to purpose and audience, from the very formal style used in most academic writing to the informal style characteristic of casual conversation. Thus there is usually more than one “standard” way to say or write something. Nevertheless, recognizable practices and conventions do exist, and they go by the shorthand name of standard English. (For more on academic conventions, see Chapter 1.)