IWSG: Crazy Writing Rules
It's the first Wednesday of the month, which means hundreds of us will be posting about our insecurities. If you haven't yet, join in. You'll be glad you did!
Each month we have a question. This month's question is:
What writing rule do you wish you’d never heard?
This month's question is actually an easy one to answer. It goes all the way back to high school--to a rule many people still steadfastly follow today. The rule?
But, and, so... The rules say we can't start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction. It's as bad as ending a sentence with a prepositional phrase. At one time, writing was more formal, making it normal to start sentences with words like however and therefore. Now that sort of writing sounds...well...stiff and off-putting.
You want to engage readers, not make them feel like they're working on their required reading for class. And guess what?
Or, as the Chicago Manual of Style puts it: "There is a widespread belief—one with no historical or grammatical foundation—that it is an error to begin a sentence with a conjunction such as and, but or so. In fact, a substantial percentage (often as many as 10 percent) of the sentences in first-rate writing begin with conjunctions. It has been so for centuries, and even the most conservative grammarians have followed this practice."
When you write for five to ten different editors/clients on a daily basis, it can get to you, though. I had one publication editor who was old school. I was disallowed from ever starting a sentence with a conjunction, ending a sentence with a prepositional phrase, or ever, EVER using a "to be" verb.
An entire 500-word article without the words is or are? Try it. It's harder than you think! Even that rule shouldn't be followed strictly, though. It's designed to keep you from writing passive sentences, but not every use of a "to be" verb is passive. When I was writing for that editor, I found myself questioning every is I typed!
Some of the rules you learned in school may not be hard-and-fast rules anymore. It's important to look into it! The most important thing is that you don't start every sentence with a conjunction. That would get annoying!
But there IS one rule I can get behind:
If you subscribe to Writer's Digest, look for my article in the February issue:
Each month we have a question. This month's question is:
What writing rule do you wish you’d never heard?
This month's question is actually an easy one to answer. It goes all the way back to high school--to a rule many people still steadfastly follow today. The rule?
But, and, so... The rules say we can't start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction. It's as bad as ending a sentence with a prepositional phrase. At one time, writing was more formal, making it normal to start sentences with words like however and therefore. Now that sort of writing sounds...well...stiff and off-putting.
You want to engage readers, not make them feel like they're working on their required reading for class. And guess what?
Or, as the Chicago Manual of Style puts it: "There is a widespread belief—one with no historical or grammatical foundation—that it is an error to begin a sentence with a conjunction such as and, but or so. In fact, a substantial percentage (often as many as 10 percent) of the sentences in first-rate writing begin with conjunctions. It has been so for centuries, and even the most conservative grammarians have followed this practice."
When you write for five to ten different editors/clients on a daily basis, it can get to you, though. I had one publication editor who was old school. I was disallowed from ever starting a sentence with a conjunction, ending a sentence with a prepositional phrase, or ever, EVER using a "to be" verb.
An entire 500-word article without the words is or are? Try it. It's harder than you think! Even that rule shouldn't be followed strictly, though. It's designed to keep you from writing passive sentences, but not every use of a "to be" verb is passive. When I was writing for that editor, I found myself questioning every is I typed!
Some of the rules you learned in school may not be hard-and-fast rules anymore. It's important to look into it! The most important thing is that you don't start every sentence with a conjunction. That would get annoying!
But there IS one rule I can get behind:
If you subscribe to Writer's Digest, look for my article in the February issue:
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