Breaking the Writing Rules

In almost every writing skills seminar, there comes a moment in which a participant finds that one of the notions about writing that he or she has held since elementary school is either no longer valid or is dead wrong. Many teachers, in an attempt to standardize communication in English, codify their opinions as “rules.” These “rules” are really guidelines that must occasionally yield to give flexibility to our efforts to express ourselves. Although we cannot communicate without at least some understanding of the rules, we also need to be flexible about applying them. We need to leave room for creativity as long as the goal of communication can still be achieved. Here are 10 rules that claim people must break occasionally to give their communications the suppleness and effectiveness they demand: