Some people still stick to rules like these:
- A sentence can’t start with the conjunction “and,” “but” or “or.”
- “Between” shouldn’t be used with more than two people or objects.
- Don’t use “over” to mean “more than.” Use “over” only for the spatial.
- Never use “while” to mean “although.”
- “Who” refers only to people and “that” only to animals and objects.
But these are false rules, often still taught as absolute must-follows. Such rules are called zombie rules, I recently discovered. See this article from The Baltimore Sun for a list of other zombie rules.
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October 8, 2013 at 4:55 am
Interesting, but I would expect a copy editor to appreciate consistency, if nothing else. Even if you don’t like the “zombie rules” — and there are good reasons for most of them — every text should go one way or the other and stick with it.
October 11, 2013 at 5:01 am
Certainly consistency is important. I will follow the preferences listed in the house style guide being used, no matter if some of those preferences are zombie rules.
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