There is no standard list of rules to follow that is guaranteed to turn us all into first class copywriters. (Or if there is, I haven’t found it yet.) There are, however, dozens of ‘non-rules’ that can hinder even the most accomplished writer.
Drilled into us at school by overzealous English teachers, or trotted out by misinformed friends and colleagues, many of them can be safely discarded. Doing so usually results in simpler, more flowing and engaging writing.
Here are six of the most common ‘writing myths’, as collated by Martin Cutts, author of The Quick Reference Plain English Guide:
You must not start a sentence with ‘but’, ’so’, ‘because’, ‘and’ or ’however’. Pick up any newspaper and you’ll see this rule ignored in virtually every paragraph.
You must not put a comma before ‘and’. A comma before ‘and’ may, in fact, help the reader to understand the sentence or put a pause in the right place.
You must not end a sentence with a preposition. Winston Churchill, irritated by an overzealous editor who insisted on re-writing all his sentences that ended with propositions, scribbled a note in the margin of one of his manuscripts: ‘This is the sort of thing up with which I will not put.’
You must not split your infinitives. If you think a sentence will be more emphatic, clear or rhythmical, split your infinitive. There is no reason in logic or grammar for avoiding it. Remember Star Trek? ‘To boldly go…’ sounds much more natural, much stronger than ‘to go boldly…’
You must not write a one-sentence paragraph. If you can say what you want to say in a single sentence that lacks a direct connection with any other sentence, then do it. There’s no rule against it. Many news journalists are taught to write one-sentence paragraphs as a matter of course.
You should write as you speak. If we all wrote how we spoke, the page would be filled with ums, ahs, cliches and long-winded, grammatically dubious sentences.
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