I’d like to discuss a mental somersault that I’ve found has caused me a lot of grief in the past, which is prescriptive descriptions. Let’s break this down a bit: A descriptive statement is a statement about how something is. A prescriptive statement is a statement about how something must be, a rule or a law. If I stay up a bit late, do most of my work in the evenings, wake up tired and just sort of putter about until noon, I might describe myself as a night person because of this.
