Teachers of writing know that published writers write sentence fragments, use passive voice, begin sentences with "and" and end them with prepositions, use the first-person pronoun "I," contract their words, and splice their sentences with commas. Even so, most instructors advise students against these elements of style. As a result, school writing is stifled and constrained by proscriptions. In this essay, the author contends that for students to learn to write in a style that expresses their own identity, teachers have to ease up on the "rules" and show students how good writing sometimes breaks the rules, most of which are only myths and lore that have developed with no linguistic basis.