I think it was my fourth grade teacher who said it to me first:
If you want to break the rules, you have to know the rules!
And from then on, from grammar school to grad school, I would hear that philosophy, that mantra, that iron-clad rule, over and over again, from mentors and professors and tutors and gurus. Mastery is needed, they would point out in so many different phrasings, before you can presume to deviate from the rules of English. If you don’t know how to do it RIGHT, don’t attempt to write it WRONG on purpose.
I took that wisdom to heart. The trouble was, I never felt that I entirely mastered English. I would get to a certain level of competency, start feeling a little comfortable, and then I’d blunder into a whole new area, with rules that were new and different and often unexpected. Or–rules…
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Author Don Massenzio 