Writing Construct Proposal — Revision

The construct I will be researching is the idea that there are rules to writing. These “rules” are often set forth as guidelines or best practices, but become institutional and later regarded as strict rules. In this respect, the rules proposed by styleguides such as Strunk & White's The Element's of Style aren't much different from institutional themes such as the five-paragraph essay. The two merely operate at different levels: one at the sentence level; the other at the organizational. In the case of both, however, “proper” seems to disappear or become flimsy at more advanced levels; however, the way both are insisted upon at lower levels can cause indoctrination and discourage good writing (or writing at all) at higher levels.