>more important than grammar rules, surely, is the ability to connect with your
audience"
That is what I think. But to do this I have had to bend over backwards. I wrote once for a group of people who wrote in way that was very difficult to read, perhaps because the are highly academic, intelligent people and not so much because they are bad writers. I had to write for them. I thought to write with too much clarity would be to insult their intelligence. But to write their way would mean to negate all I had learnt about good writing. The deciding factor was connecting with audience. The audience was used to their writing style, which if I copied I would connect better. So, I worked hard - to write badly. I wrote and rewrote to make long sentences, use passive voice, generalisations and difficult words where an easy one would have done. What I produced made me cry, but they thought it was fine… (strange world).
>and learning how to use multiple grammars is a social skill.
I guess that was the lesson.
