: Re: Breaking the Rules There are many style guides that urge writers to use the active voice and to avoid nominalizations. But many good books I've read often violate these rules. So when should

@Kristi637

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After you've thoroughly mastered the rules, and understood them, you can break them any time you want to.
That may sound counter-intuitive, but there's an explanation behind it. Artistic rules are only ever guidelines. They aren't absolutes. But they also aren't arbitrary. Often, they are covering things that it would be difficult to explain. You have to experience them from the inside.
Also, when you know the rules, and how to apply them, you understand the difference in effect and impact between honoring them and breaking them. For instance, there's are times and places to use bad grammar --advertising copywriters and songwriters do it all the time, it's more vivid and memorable. But if you use bad grammar all the time, you just sound uneducated.

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