Breaking the rules

Break for impact…

An absolute favourite of mine when writing content is starting a sentence with and.

I think it’s great for adding extra emphasis of what comes next and adds a touch of informality, making the content a bit more engaging for the reader

Starting a sentence like this can really rub people up the wrong way, because it’s totally against the rules*.

But you see, a bit of rule breaking is good. I’ve also been known to use but ahead of the wordier and more formal however, or even the odd split infinitive (to boldly go is far more dynamic than its ‘correct’ alternative to go boldly).

But know when to break them…

Naturally, these little quirks need to be used sparingly. Do it too much and it will lose impact.

Not only that but remain some definite red lines that must not be crossed.

Any Twitter user will know, using the wrong form of there, their or they’re is practically a hanging offence. The same goes for loose instead of lose or misusing the apostrophe in it’s. Breaking these rules won’t add impact they’ll make the writing harder to read.

What can we learn from all this? The English language is constantly evolving, decimate no longer only means to kill one in every ten, while literally has been used ‘incorrectly’ since the days of Mark Twain, F Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce. If we stick to the rules too much we risk being viewed as pedants and out of touch.  The secret of good writing is known when to bend with the breeze – and when to break.

* Although it appears people have actually been breaking this ‘rule’ as far back as the 9th  century.