Hey Nick, I'm an avid reader of your reviews and appreciate the effort you put into them.
That said, your criticism of Gordon's usage is misplaced (at least in the examples you provided).
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P. 35, 3rd paragraph, 3rd and 4th sentences:
"But with 8-6 suited, it is very unlikely that my opponent will have one of those. Unless they have a pocket pair... ."
One: Most copy editors would, uh, flag a sentence that begins with "But".
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No, most copy editors wouldn't.
Garner's usage tip of the day.
<font color="blue">It is a gross canard that beginning a sentence with "but" is stylistically slipshod. In fact, doing so is highly desirable in any number of contexts, as many stylebooks have said (many correctly pointing out that "but" is more effective than "however" at the beginning of a sentence) -- e.g.:
o "Objection is sometimes taken to employment of 'but' or 'and' at the beginning of a sentence; but for this there is much good usage." Adams Sherman Hill, The Principles of Rhetoric 88 (rev. ed. 1896).
o "Of the many myths concerning 'correct' English, one of the most persistent is the belief that it is somehow improper to begin a sentence with ['and,' 'but,' 'for,' 'or,' or 'nor']. The construction is, of course, widely used today and has been widely used for generations, for the very good reason that it is an effective means of achieving coherence between sentences and between larger units of discourse, such as paragraphs." R.W. Pence & D.W. Emery, A Grammar of Present-Day English 106 n.15 (2d ed. 1963).
o "The widespread public belief that 'but' should not be used at the beginning of a sentence has no foundation but is seemingly unshakeable." Robert W. Burchfield, Points of View 119 (1992).
o "If you want to begin a sentence by contradicting the last, use 'but' instead of 'however.'" Christopher Lasch, Plain Style 101 (Stewart Weaver ed., 2002).
Good writers often begin sentences with "but" and have always done so -- e.g.:
o "But reading his speeches in cold blood offers a curious experience." H.L. Mencken, "The Archangel Woodrow" (1921), in The Vintage Mencken 116, 119 (1955).
o "But such simplicity of instinct is scarcely possible for human beings." Bertrand Russell, Education and the Good Life 192 (1926).
o "But it must not be assumed that intelligent thinking can play no part in the formation of the goal and of ethical judgments." Albert Einstein, "Science and Religion" (1939), in Ideas and Opinions 41, 42 (1954).
o "But Joyce manages to do something even more subtle than that." Vladimir Nabokov, "Ulysses" (ca. 1955), in Lectures on Literature 285, 346 (Fredson Bowers ed., 1980).
o "But it is a careful, angry, honest film, and nothing it says is less apposite now than it would have been ten years ago, or twenty." James Agee, Agee on Film 206 (1958).
o "But perhaps the more valuable achievement to come out of France for the novel has been a whole body of criticism inspired by the new novelists." Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation 104 (1966).
o "But the virtues of the film are many and considerable." John Simon, Movies into Film 78 (1971).
o "But the modesty is usually false." William Safire, What's the Good Word? 44 (1982).
o "But he had got used to that and it did not disquiet him." Ursula K. Le Guin, The Other Wind 143 (2001).
These are not good writers on bad days. No: they were having good days. And the list could be expanded a thousandfold.</font>
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Two: "My opponent" in the first sentence refers to the same person as "they" in the second sentence. I would categorize this as "substandard English". This is exactly the situation I was talking about in my previous post.
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I don't care for the singular
they myself, but it is incorrect to call it incorrect.
<font color="blue">"Though the masculine singular pronoun may survive awhile longer as a generic term, it will probably be displaced ultimately by
they, which is coming to be used alternatively as singular or plural" (Bryan A. Garner,
Garner's Modern American Usage [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003], 718).