Good suggestions here, and thanks.

The kind of thing that I'm looking for--and your suggestions will send me searching this weekend--are for rules that were rigid for formal writing that have categorically changed, such as the split infinitive and the use of the preposition at the end of certain sentences to which Faldage refers.

The incorrect usage of the pronoun "I" gives me shivers up my spine. It's almost at the point now that when I correctly use "me", to some ears it's as though I had erred--but I hadn't. "Before leaving class, make sure you give your papers to Mrs. Edwards and me." Soooo many people in that sentence would have said "...to Mrs. Edwards and I." No joke. We've discussed the problem here on AWAD some time ago. I've found myself sliding into that construction incorrect "whosit and I" objective construction incorrectly on occasion--and I immediately correct myself.

But funny things happen in class. I thought a group of freshmen were going to mutiny day before yesterday when I suggested that the word 'swimming' could be a noun. They scowled and complained and said I was wrong and how could simming, which everybody knows is a verb, be a noun??? Those kids were really upset with me. After they finished being upset, I acknowledged the verbitude (!) of swimming, but showed them how it mysteriously became a noun in certain constructions. My kids don't trust me yet. It's somehow interesting to realize that I'm being examined with great suspicion.

Again, thanks for the suggestions.