The writer speaks.

I used to teach writing. I’ve also written lots of, you know, stuff.  So I am hereby declaring myself a writing expert, which qualifies me to tell you what’s what.

In law school, they tell you there is one right way to write a brief. College placement offices tell you there is only one right way to write a resume. Professors ding you if you indent – or don’t indent – the first paragraph of an essay.

What bullshit! For one thing, everybody’s “one right way” is different. So what’s a girl to do?

Yeah, of course you need to comply with whatever moronic requirements your venue has placed on you. Courts and college placement offices can be annoyingly anal, with significant consequences for insurgents.

But otherwise, there’s really only one rule: whatever you’re writing, write it in the way that best achieves your goal. If your issue statement is more effective in two sentences than in one, use two sentences. If your resume is better at three pages, make it three pages, for god’s sake.

And here’s the corollary: Whatever you’re reading, read it for the message, not the grammar. The world won’t end if the writer uses “its” instead of “it’s,” or if they put two spaces after the period instead of one, or if they say “should of” instead of “should have.” If this sort of thing bugs you so much that you can’t hear the underlying message, you need a life, or therapy, or something.

Seriously, you do. 

Unless, of course, it happened in my writing class, in which case there were significant consequences.