The article considers the correlation between variation and dynamics of norms of modern Russian literary language. It presents a plan and a brief outline of the lecture on the topic "Variation and the change of norms of modern Russian literary language" in the university course "Basics of Stylistics and Rhetoric". The basic concepts - terms: variation, sources and causes of variation, "fluctuations" of the norm, range of variation and competition of variants are characterized. Variation as a property of one and the same linguistic unit and synonymy as a property of different linguistic units are distinguished. Variation is a stage in the development of norm.
