J'all see this in today's Word?
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Pedantry and mastery are opposite attitudes toward rules. To apply a rule to the letter, rigidly, unquestioningly, in cases where it fits and in cases where it does not fit, is pedantry ... To apply a rule with natural ease, with judgment, noticing the cases where it fits, and without ever letting the words of the rule obscure the purpose of the action or the opportunities of the situation, is mastery. -George Polya, mathematician (1887-1985)
To me this looks like a restatement of the "good writers can break the rules" argument, which never made much sense to me. If only the masters can break the rules, where does that leave the rest of us? And since we all want to be good writers, and since good writers can break the rule, how useful is the rule anyway?
