Rules of Writing

1. Throughout my life as a student, I have been taught  many rules for writing. One thing I have found in the English language is there always seems to be an exception to a rule. When students are younger, they are told not to start sentences with because, but, etc. Now in college, I find this throughout many research papers, but teachers will not necessarily dock points for it. Teachers now say it is alright to begin sentences with such words, as long as we follow certain grammar and punctuation rules. Writing would be less confusing if the rules were either followed or not and contained no exceptions.

2. Knowing now that some rules of writing can be enforced more strictly than others is a great relief to me. When I started writing, all of the strict rules made writing hard for me, but now that I know that some rules do not have to be followed, it makes writing a lot easier. If I did stop following a certain rule and started enforcing a different one, I would need to make sure the rule I am following is more important than the ones I disregard. On the other hand, if I completely get rid of a rule I am free to write however I want, but I may lose organization, flow, or some other characteristic of writing. If I simply follow the rule more flexibly, then I can still save the organization and flow of the paper, while giving myself more flexibility while writing the paper.