That "data" was forever plural. I was never to split an infinitive. I had to uphold a huge number of stylistic conventions that haven't been part of spoken "middle class" English since 1950 or before. It was "academic English."

He was a professor of historical linguistics, was fully aware that language changed and that language was defined by cultural norms. Yet his first comments on the first substantive, publishable research paper I presented to him was 3 single-spaced two-column pages that listed only stylistic errors: Tense, agreement, punctuation, word usage. I found this deeply offensive.

His retort was that many older academics on whose opinion my reputation and career hung would take umbrage at my lack of adherence to those traditions. It may be a linguistic fact that language changes and norms can be fluid, but it was a social fact that I was going to be held to those rules and would have to learn to abide by them, at least by a few faculty members and editors. Perhaps enough to hinder me and keep me from finding a job in my field.

He was clear it was not his job to use my career to change his colleagues' minds. It was his job to make sure that when I hit the job market I had every advantage that he could give me. It was not his job to use me as a kind of sacrificial goat in an attempt to remake society or sacrifice me to help others that might be his students in 10 or 15 years.