Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace: Lesson 2

"To a competent writer, nothing is more important than choice, the ability to choose not just what to write but how" (15).

Three Kinds of Rules

1. Classroom folklore consists of rules that were completely invented by grammarians and mostly ignored by skilled writers. Most inexperienced writers are burdened with many of these "rules" already, such as "Never begin a sentence with AND," or "Never end a sentence with a preposition," or "Never split an infinitive."
2. Inviolable rules are rules which maintain the "distinction" between serious writers and careless writers, perhaps even between the literate and the illiterate. Violating these rules mark us as, if not careless then illiterate. These rules are observed by even less than careful writers.
3. Optional rules are points of usage that we may choose to observe or not depending upon the rhetorical situation and our own purposes.

Three Kinds of Correctness

1. Some rules define the fundamental structure of English. These rules define the language and are the only ones that can be called grammatical rules.
2. Some rules distinguish standard speech from non-standard (or dialectical) speech: "I don't know anything" (standard) vs. "I don't know nothing" (non-standard, but grammatically correct).
3. Some rules are complete inventions and make up a surprising number of the "rules" most (experienced and inexperienced) writers violate, such as: Don't split infinitives, and so on.

What Do You Do?

You could try to memorize and follow all the rules all the time, but not only is this impossible, it is foolish. Different audiences demand adherence to different rules, so it is better to know the real "rules," the ones that dictate the structure of the language and the ones that distinguish between standard and non-standard, and know enough about the other ones so that you can follow them when necessary or ignore them when you want. In short, it is all about choice and not obedience.

Folklore

Folklore refers to "rules" that are not rules at all. Here are some examples of folklore that can be ignored (provided you are not writing for someone who believes that these "rules" really are rules):

• Don't begin a sentence with and or but. In addition, some teachers have extended this rule to include subordinate conjuctions such as because, and while, and even prepositions.
• Use the relative pronoun that, not which, for restrictive clauses. A restrictive clause is a clause that limits the meaning of the noun it modifies. For example, the sentence "The shirt, which I left at the cleaners, is the one I wanted to wear today," would be considered wrong by folklore standards, but it is not wrong.
• Never split an infinitive. Williams considers this an option, but more professors complain about this "problem" than any other, so it still has folklore status. The real problem of split infinitives is some writers put so many words between the "to" and the verb that it becomes difficult to understand the sentence.

Options

Options refer to rules which when you follow them catch the reader's attention. Williams says of options that they signal "deliberate care" on the part of the writer and thus will please those who often hold considerable power over the writer's future.

• Use shall as the first person simple future, will for second and third person simple future; use will to mean strong intention in the first person, shall for second and third person. The use of shall has become so rare, that its mere appearance signals a very careful writer.
• Use whom as the object of a verb or preposition. The objective case of who, whom, has nearly vanished from informal use. (Watch a sporting event or a local newscast or The Tonight Show, and if you are alert you will notice a conscious avoidance of whom, even when the need for it seems obvious.)
• Do not end a sentence with a preposition. Writers have enjoyed poking fun at this rule, with Churchill's version of "I won't put up with this" ("This is something up with which I will not put") being the most famous. Note though that ending a sentence with a preposition produces a weak ending, which is fine if that is your intent.
• Contrary-to-fact sentences require the subjunctive. The subjunctive has almost vanished from English.
• Use the singular with none and any. So, you should write, "None of us knows the answer," instead of "None of us know the answer," but increasingly writers are using the plural form of verbs with none and any.

Some Helpful Lists

See Williams' definitions of words that attract special attention on pp. 30-1.

See Williams' list of "errors" that he claims "you should both know their special status [as objects of particular fury] and understand that judgments about them are capricious, unfounded in logic, history, or linguistic efficiency" on pp. 32-3.