Rules Vs Style

Recently I was part of a conversation on editing and the differences between editing with the grammar 'rules' and the grammar style. For me this hardly made a lot of sense, as an editor I look for grammar errors following the basics.

That is until I got claification. Every person who looks at a manuscript will edit it to a certain degree. Its hardly abnormal, however, what one person may see as being correct and concise may not always follow the preset parameters that we've followed since forever.

A grammar style is what makes the paragraph, passage read nicely. Does it flow, do you get the images that are persented? Can you fall into that scene? For some doing editing this is important, and others are die hard - by the book editors, that focus on structure, grammar, correct usage of periods, commas, etc. Its a tight rope we walk as an editor. Of course a client can say that 'They've written in their style,' and I have no isse with that. What I do disagree is using grammar style to shirk the rules.

Rules that, depending upon where you are, vary greatly. British grammar varies from Canadian, which varies from American, and so on. Style belongs in writing, in editing, but in my  humble opinion not to the exclusion of proper grammar - which gets mangled in dialogue anyway.