Silly question

[Carol]

Miles wrote:
> Miles, who by the way likes authors who play with language rules rather then obeying them

Carol responds:
Most "rules" are primarily guidelines or conventions enabling us to understand each other. That's why editors correct an author's spelling and grammar unless there's a reason not to (for example, a character mispronounces words--case in point, Hagrid's "bong sewer" to indicate his atrocious French). Spelling and punctuation need to be consistent within a manuscript even if variations are acceptable. (Generally, for example, American publishers want editors to use the serial comma; British publishers don't.) Most copyeditors would consider comma splices to be errors (though JKR's books have a lot of them)--unless they appear in a note scribbled by a teenager, in which case, they're to be expected. And sentence fragments are "errors" unless they work stylistically (or appear in dialogue, where they're natural and normal).

In short, good writers should know the rules (conventions) and know when to break them. Rather like Professor McGonagall and school rules, I suppose.

Carol, who enjoys word play and respects author's individual voices but must also consider readability and the publisher's expectations