"Rules" for writing?

No wonder the blank page elicits something like constipation for students! Bemused by some teachers' insistence that essay-writing students should never use a first-person pronoun, I found this blurp, whose intention seems to be to lighten up on the rules; yet it introduces scarily rigid tenets - by means of so many unnecessary words that it veers toward opacity. A travesty. You who read this instant protest could prune that blurp down to half its length and make it clearer in the process. And then do the same with this instant protest