The final frontier of mastery is knowing which “rules” are real, which are conventions of edited prose, and which are superstitions. This chapter sorts the classic disputes into three bins: genuine rules, register conventions, and zombie rules (invented prohibitions that never matched good usage).
Zombie rules: safe to ignore
- Split infinitives
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has been standard English for centuries. Split when rhythm or clarity demands: (moving elsewhere changes the meaning or the emphasis). Avoid only very wide splits: .
- Ending a sentence with a preposition
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Fully standard: Fronting is available for formality (), not required.
- Starting a sentence with or
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Standard at every level of formality, and ancient. as an opener is often the cleanest contrast marker. Do not overuse.
- for things
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is correct; is available but often clumsier.
- as a sentence adverb
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is as legitimate as or used the same way, and is accepted by modern usage panels.
Register conventions: know your audience
- vs.
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is required only in formal writing, and only where an object pronoun would appear: . Test by substitution: , . In speech, everywhere (except right after a preposition) is unremarkable. Hypercorrect is worse than no : \(\to\) (subject of ).
- vs.
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Edited prose prefers with counted plurals () and with mass nouns () — but is idiomatic with measures and sums: .
- vs.
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Conservative style reserves for noun comparisons () and for clauses (). Conversational English uses for both; formal writing still expects .
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See Chapter [ch:nouns]: singular is standard outside conservative scientific venues; and remain firmly plural in edited prose ().
- vs. in the past
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For real possibilities use either; for counterfactuals, careful usage requires : ( suggests we still don’t know).
- Contractions
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Normal in journalism, business email, and this book; avoided in contracts, statutes, and the most formal academic prose.
Genuine distinctions worth keeping
- /
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The speaker implies; the listener infers.
- /
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= bored; = impartial (). The distinction is eroding but still enforced in careful prose.
- /
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Verb (influence), noun (result); rarer: verb (bring about — ), noun (psychology: emotional state).
- /
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(no object); (takes an object): The past of being causes the confusion — memorize the two full paradigms.
- / , / , / /
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Not usage debates — plain spelling errors with outsized reputational cost.
- /
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= that is (restates); = for example (samples). Both take a following comma in AmE style and are confined to parentheses and notes in formal prose.
- Dangling modifiers, comma splices, agreement
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The genuinely grammatical core — Chapters [ch:traps], [ch:punctuation], and [ch:agreement].
The grammar of good sentences
Beyond correctness, a handful of grammatical habits does most of the work of “good style”:
Put characters in subjects and actions in verbs. \(\to\)
Keep subject and verb close. Long interruptions between them are where readers get lost (and agreement errors breed — Chapter [ch:agreement]).
End sentences on the news (end-focus, Chapter [ch:infostructure]).
Prune throat-clearing: , , , — each usually deletable.
Vary sentence length deliberately. A short sentence after long ones lands like a verdict. Like this.
Prefer the concrete verb to verb + nominalization: not , not — unless the nominal serves cohesion (Chapter [ch:nominalization]).
Exercises
Rule, convention, or zombie? Classify each “rule” and justify in one sentence.
Never begin a sentence with .
Use with count nouns in formal writing.
Never split an infinitive.
A pronoun must agree with its antecedent.
Do not use contractions in a legal contract.
Word choice Choose the form expected in careful edited prose.
The witness (implied / inferred) from the smoke that the fire had started earlier.
There were (less / fewer) applicants this year.
The mediator must remain (uninterested / disinterested).
Yesterday I (lay / laid) awake for hours.
The policy will (affect / effect) thousands of tenants.
If the goalkeeper had reacted faster, we (may / might) have won.
Style surgery Rewrite for characters-as-subjects, actions-as-verbs, and end-focus.
It is important to note that a reduction in costs was achieved by the new team through the elimination of redundant processes.
There is a possibility of the occurrence of delays due to the implementation of the upgrade of the system this weekend.
The rejection of the proposal by the committee was a disappointment to the applicants.