In Fumble Rules, Safire tries to be "smart" by creating grammar rules that are described in the bad grammar that they purport to fight. Unfortunately, this approach backfires, often making the rules difficult to comprehend. When the rules are easy to comprehend, however, it also backfires, showing that the rule is not really critical to understanding.
Perhaps this can be taken with a grain of salt, as he acknowledges that these are primarily for formal writing, rather than more informal text. (But who really writes readable formal writing these days? It seems to be either legalese mumble jumble, or informal prose.) Even the rules themselves come with a myriad of exceptions. It looks like the strict grammarian is doomed in this democratic English language.
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