Here’s the thing. English is a living language, and the rules are constantly changing.

They have to, just to keep pace with the ways communication is evolving. When the rules change, a lot of editors freak out, call meetings, and generally run around like we’ve just been brained by The Chicago Manual of Style. Others shrug, adapt, and move on. I aspire to the latter because it’s the only way to stay alive in an industry that’s constantly shifting.

“But wait!” you say. “The rules USED to change all the time, but that’s not true anymore! Modern rules are rules!” 

Not so, guys. Here a just few examples from our generation:

• We no longer separate sentences with two spaces after the period
• “They” is now an accepted singular pronoun
• Style guides are moving away from capitalizing words like “internet”
• Remember E-mail and Web sites? Me neither.
• The Oxford English Dictionary’s 2015 Word of the Year was a freaking emoji

Rules are changing all the time, and they’ll continue to do so. One thing that blew my mind when I was in school was learning that dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive. That means that they don’t make the rules—they just reflect back to us the things we’re already doing.

Whaaaatttt? 

So if we can’t even turn to the dictionary when we need an authority, where can we turn? That’s the best part, writers: you can turn to yourselves. You can begin writing and creating today, regardless of how many rules you know, follow, or accept. Enjoy that flexibility—there are few other industries in the world, or times in history, where making it up as you go along would be even close to acceptable.

Now, important caveat: this doesn’t mean we should ignore everything and just grok our way toward connection and clarity in our writing.

It doesn’t mean we can assume the responsibility for understanding rests entirely with our readers. Writing is a partnership and a relationship with your reader, so you do owe them your best effort to express yourself clearly. But, as it turns out, clear expression is rarely the result of perfectly correct writing. And if you concern yourself too much with what the rules are right now, you might never get started. 

So this module will identify a few of the old rules you can safely ignore in your writing. They’re still technically current, and they were absolutely part of the no-no list throughout my writing and editing education, but that’s kind of how we roll in this course. And I’m not alone—a good percentage of professional editors ignore these rules as well, especially when fixing them would change the overall tone of a piece of writing.

Rules you can ignore

1. Never make a typo.

You know from the last module how I feel about typos—that they’re just proof of a human being behind the screen. While you should make every effort to check your writing for basic spelling and grammar, it really isn’t the end of the world if your works goes out with a typo in it. If you do happen to misuse a comma and cost your company $10 million, you wouldn’t be the first, but those kinds of stories make the news because of how rare they are, not because of their frequency. In regular business communication, if the best thing an anonymous Internet commentator can add to the conversation is that you misspelled aficionado, they’re proving only that they’re not your intended audience, anyway. 

2. Never end a sentence with a preposition.

To, with, by, on, between, about...there are about 150 prepositions in English. They describe the relationship between elements of a sentence, such as “Richard ran along the sidewalk” or “Writers enjoy snacking between chapters.” You’ve probably heard the rule that you cannot end a sentence with prepositions, and that sucks because who can keep track of 150 words with which you can’t end a sentence? (See what I did there?) So here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for: you can forget that rule. It’s unnecessary, and it often leads to awkwardly “correct” sentences. 

3. It’s against the rules to willfully split an infinitive.

(Sorry. Sometimes I cannot help myself.) Apparently, you’re never supposed to put a word between the infinitive, two-word forms of verbs like to write, to read, and to split. To do so is to “split” the infinitive, and some grammar experts think this looks ugly or uneducated. Fortunately, countless others disagree, so you’re in great company if you choose to intentionally ignore this limiting rule.

4. Don’t use too many parentheses or ellipses. 

This rule stems from the belief that too much punctuation can interrupt the flow of a sentence. While that’s true in some cases, it’s also kind of limiting to think the only punctuation marks you should use are the minimum ones required. Jason breaks this rule all the time—with flair and style, I might add. You could even say that his “overuse” of parentheses is 100% critical to his writing style.​​​​​​​

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The new rules for modern writers

I’ll use the word “rules” pretty loosely here. You’re the writer here, and you’re deciding during this course to step into the authority and autonomy that comes with that title. We’re not going for perfection, after all. 

So I’m not coming down the mountain with these rules on stone tablets, nor am I prescribing these as the cure for all your writing challenges. But these are some of the techniques that modern writers are using to succeed in the new sphere of writing for an online audience, and they’re adaptable enough that you can start using them to improve your writing immediately. Ready?

1. Be yourself.

You learned all about embracing your weird in the first module, and it’s worth repeating here because it’s the thing that only you can do. Tell your story, be transparent, and share the things that an old fuddy duddy English teacher would suggest you leave out. 

2. Prioritize trust.

Above all, everything you write is an opportunity to connect with your audience. When you prioritize trust, every other decision becomes a whole lot easier. Should you write about that topic? Depends on how it would affect your readers’ trust. Should you promote that thing? Depends on how it would affect your readers’ trust. Etc.

3. Be brief.

Say what you need to say, and then get out of the way. Be as concise as you can so as to contribute to the conversation rather than the noise pollution. One caveat here: being brief doesn’t mean sticking to a certain word count per post or trying to keep your “time to read” length under 6 minutes to get the most clicks. Being brief means using the fewest possible words within the context of what you’re trying to share. If it takes 500 words, so be it; if it takes 5,000, that’s cool too—just make sure it actually takes 5,000. 

It’s often said that you shouldn’t write a book unless that’s the shortest possible way to make your argument, and a lot of authors should have taken that advice before publishing. To be brief is to be respectful of your readers’ time and intelligence. It is to give them exactly what they need to understand and implement your lessons, and to then invite them to take action on the new information. It is to encourage the domino effect of your words.

4. Be OK with being imperfect.

Is there such a thing as a perfect writer? Maybe you have a favorite author or blogger, but you could probably just as quickly name someone who doesn’t like that same writer’s style. There’s no single correct way to be the writer you were meant to be; there is only writing, throwing it away, writing it again, editing it, and deciding to ship it when you’ve given it your best. 

Homework ahoy! Your practical assignment for this module:

You wrote a piece for the last module, and now it’s time to make it even better. Why didn’t we give you these rules first so you could write it properly the first time? Two reasons:

1. Because we’re not going for perfect here. So meta! 
2. Because then you’d do what we all do, which is assume only other people make these mistakes. With a recently completed piece of writing in hand, you’ll get a better sense of the things you do when you don’t know any better, and what to do to get stronger immediately.

Read through your piece now using the lens of the old rules and the new ones. Ask yourself these questions:

• Am I sacrificing my voice to sound “proper”? 
• Am I holding back?
• Are there are places I can inject a little more personality? 
• What “rules” of English changed the way I wrote that sentence or wanted to write that sentence?
• How would I tell this story if there was no right way to tell it?

Answers in hand, let’s keep going into the next module. With your newfound perspective, we’re going to actually implement some proven self-editing techniques.