Today's word: As

Do you shudder when you see like used as a conjunction, as in the phrase do it this way like I do? You're in good company, you little prescriptivist. In fact, the Harper Dictionary of Contemporary Usage states that “probably no single question of usage has created greater controversy in recent years”. 

But you're fighting a losing battle.

Before I tell you why, here's a little history. Given its remarkable brevity, as is a fairly recent addition to the lexicon. Before it appeared, some time around 1200, the nearest equivalent was the Old English alswa - "quite so". As took around 200 years to become fully established, no doubt after many rants from traditionalists fulminating against the modern trend to clip perfectly good words, and warnings that this signalled the imminent death of cultured speech and writing.

Now back to the controversy over the use of like for as. In 1954, tobacco firm RJ Reynolds launched a new brand of cigarettes with the tagline Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. That line, which endured for nearly 20 years, has since become one of the great classics of advertising. Walter Cronkite, the doyen of news anchormen at the time, refused to read it, even though Winston sponsored his show and he was supposed to say it. Then, in 1961, more hackles were raised when, in its Third New International Dictionary, Merriam-Webster declined to condemn the use of like as a conjunction, and cited the Winston line as an example of popular colloquial use. The New York Times called the edition "bolshevik", and the Chicago Daily News wrote that the usage signified "a general decay in values". You've got to admire the fiery determination, don't you?

While like used as a conjunction may break with one's personal notion of accepted style or convention, there's nothing inherently ungrammatical about it. My advice: In formal writing, don't do like Winston did, but do as the editor of the New York Times would. It won't make you right, but it'll keep you onside with people who worry about this stuff, and it won't lose you any points with the people who don't. 

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