So we follow those rules and principles exemplified by the best, because most brilliant and conscientious, users of the language. We must regain the courage to discriminate between the smart and the stupid, the clear and the clumsy, word or phrase. Then comes that elusive thing called style, tricky to define, and perhaps impossible to teach. Evelyn Waugh once identified the three elements of style as lucidity, elegance, and individuality. Lucidity, using words clearly and simply, marks the first step toward developing a style, and it's enough for all literate purposes.
Elegance comes only to the persistent.
Tellingly, in our age of free expression, only the third counts. Correctness and clarity, though, must come first. Without the virtue of elegance, one's writing may not be pleasing. But without that of lucidity, it won't even be comprehensible. Here are a few compass bearings for the journey.