Real Rules

The first the most important category of rules includes those whose violation would generally brand one as a writer of nonstandard English. Here are a few: （最重要的一类规则可以用于界定标准化和非标准化英语写作，如下所示）

1. Double negatives: The engine had hardly no systematic care.

2. Nonstandard verb forms: They knowed that nothing would happen.

3. Double comparatives: This way is more quicker.

4. Some adjectives for adverbs: They did the work real good.

5. Pleonastic subjects （冗余的主语）: These ideas they need explanation.

6. Some incorrect pronouns: Him and me will study the problem.

7. Some subject-verb disagreements. They was ready to begin.

Folklore （民间用法，可称之为“软规则”）

A second group of rules includes those whose observance we do not remark, and whose violation we do not remark either. In fact, these are not rules at all, but linguistic folklore, enforced by many editors and schoolteachers, but largely ignored by educated and careful writers. （即便有人违背了，人们通常也不会在意这类“软规则”。有修养的谨慎的作者通常会无视它们。）

1. Never begin a sentence with because. Allegedly, not this:

Because we have access to so much historical fact, today we know a good deal about changes within the humanities which were not apparent to those of any age much before our own and which the individual scholar must constantly reflect on. （这些例子都是作者从知名作家的书中摘抄出来的反例，用于说明这类“软规则”其实不能算是规则）

-Walter Ong, S.J., "The Expanding Humanities and the Individual Scholar," PMLA

2. Never begin a sentence with a coordinating conjunction such as and or but. Allegedly, not this:

But, it will be asked, is tact not an individual gift, therefore highly variable in its choices? And if that is so, what guidance can a manual offer, other than that of its author's prejudices-mere impressionism?

-Wilson Follett, Modern American Usage: A Guide, edited and completed by Jacques Barzun et al.

3. When referring to an inanimate referent, use the relative pronoun that - not which - for restrictive clauses; use which for nonrestrictive clauses. Allegedly, not this:

Next is a typical situation which （此处属于限定性从句） a practiced writer corrects "for style" virtually by reflex action.

-Jacques Barzun, Simple and Direct, p. 69.

4. Don't use which or this to refer to a whole clause. Allegedly not this:

Although the publishers have not yet destroyed the plates of the second edition of Merriam-Webster's unabridged dictionary, they do not plan to keep it in print, which is a pity.

-Dwight MacDonald, "The String Untuned," The New Yorker

当which引入歧义时，可以通过使用总结性修饰语或重复性修饰语廓清歧义：

1a. They gave me the letter, which made me happy.

1b. They gave me a letter, a thoughtful act that made me happy.

5. Use each other to refer to two, one another to refer to three or more. Allegedly, not this: （中国的英语老师通常都是这么教的，其实也只是软规则而已）

Now "society" is ever in search of novelty-and it is a limited body of well-to-do women and men of leisure. From the almost exclusive association of these persons with each other, there arises a kind of special vocabulary, which is constantly changing.

-James B. Greenough and George L. Kittredge, Words and Their Ways in English Speech

6. Use between with two, among with three or more. Allegedly not this: （我以前也是这么认为的，才知道这也是软规则）

. . . government remained in the hands of fools and adventurers, foreigners and fanatics, who between them went near to wrecking the work of the Tudor monarchy.

-George Macaulay Trevelyan, A Shortened History of England

We never use among with only two （不过绝不会用among指代两人之间）, but careful writers commonly use between with three or more.

7. Use fewer with nouns that you can count, less with quantities you cannot. Allegedly not this: 

I can remember no less than five occasions when the correspondence columns of The Times rocked with volleys of letters from the academic profession protesting that academic freedom is in danger and the future of scholarship threatened.

-Noel Gilroy Annan, Lord Annan. "The Life of the Mind in British Universities Today," ACLS Newsletter

8. Use due to meaning 'because of' only in a phrase that modifies a noun, never in a phrase that modifies a verb. Allegedly not this:

. . . cooperation between the Department of Economics and the Business School and between the Business School and the Law School will be much greater ten years from now than at present, due to the personal relations of the younger men on the three faculties.

-James Bryant Conant, The President's Report: 1951 - 1952. Harvard University Press

On the most formal of occasions, occasions on which you would want to avoid the slightest hint of offending those who believe in all the rules, folklore or not, you might decide to observe all of these rules. In ordinary circumstances, though, these "rules" are ignored by most careful writers, which is equivalent to saying that these rules are not rules at all. If you adopt the worst-case approach and observe them all, all the time well, to each his own. Private virtues are their own reward. （如果是在正式的场合，为了避免引起那些坚决恪守规则之人的不快，即便是这些“软规则”，也应当尽量遵守。如果是非正式场合，即便是很谨慎的作者也会无视掉这些“软规则”。如果始终采取抱着最坏情况的策略，并时刻恪守各种“软规则”，也算是一点私人之趣味吧。）