If you read and follow the strictures of Elements of Style, your writing is worse than not following it: awkward, stilted, self-conscious, clumsy. The authors did not follow their own advice in their own writing, and not even in that book itself. Its advice is presented and received as truth when it is merely opinion. Worse, people who have real power over you but are not writers will use its advice to evaluate your writing: editors, teachers, even actual judges.
But don't take my word for it. There are language and writing experts who are more articulate and detailed than I who can tell you:
