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Three Writing Rules





You already have learned a great deal of information on how to formulate and produce a great piece of business writing. However, it never hurts to know even more. There are three writing rules that many people maintain as important enough for you to consider for each document you produce. Here they are::


In this lesson, we will look at each of these, what the historical and current thoughts on the rules are, and how the rules affect what you write.

Splitting Infinitives

Splitting infinitives is the act of putting a word, usually an adverb, between the preposition "to" and the verb in its infinitive form.

For example:
She planned to quickly clean the floor.

Placing the word "quickly" between "to" and "clean" splits, or divides, the infinitive "to clean." Many grammar experts would frown upon doing so, stating that it should be written as:

She planned quickly to clean the floor.

Split infinitive example:
He tried to boldly go to her house.

Not split example:
He tried to go boldly to her house.

The problem with the corrected first example is that it makes the sentence somewhat unclear. Written that way, you are not sure if she planned quickly or she is going to quickly clean the floor. Avoiding split infinitives, although still strongly advocated by many, sometimes causes ambiguity.

Many years ago in this country, people routinely split infinitives and it was not an issue. Then people started pointing it out when they saw it in print and voiced their disapproval. This is because much of the language we use is based upon Latin and in that language infinitives are not split. Once it became such an issue with the public, newspapers and other publications started following the writing rule of never splitting infinitives. Fast forward to recent years and it is not as followed as it once was. Many English majors have been trained over the years that it is still a stronghold and should never be done. But many people are moving away from the rule.

In fact, in 1998, The New York Times announced that it was comfortable with split infinitives. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English recognizes the movement away from following this rule yet still recommends following it because you will not always know the expectations of your reader. So why would people move away from splitting infinitives? Sometimes not splitting infinitives can lead to unclear writing or ambiguity. For purposes of business writing, you should aim to not split infinitives, unless the wording would cause the sentence to become unclear or ambiguous.



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