The Mechanics and Rhetoric of Conversation : Page 29

Good usage, a phase of grammar, is the etiquette of language. It is the linguistic manners of the best speakers everywhere. A good conversationalist will as a matter of course try to conform to this good usage. As long as most refined and respected people avoid it ain't, between you and I, bursted, hadn't ought, should of paid, nowheres, busted, it don't, a person who wants to fulfill St. Paul's precept of graciousness, liveliness, and readiness will avoid them too. Such solecisms or illiteracies are to good conversation what notes slightly sharp or flat are to good music. And just as people who are used to poor music nevertheless enjoy good music when they get it, so people whose own speech is not free of usage faults find correct speech refreshingly pleasant and look for it in those whom they respect and want to look up to. All human beings want to improve, want to become more refined; they value a talker who shows them the good example, who without obtruding or parading it, simply talks correctly.