Like everything else conceived by the minds of humans, grammar and its rule come into and go out of fashion. Shakespeare could use double negatives, but were not supposed to. An educated person in the 17th Century could say aint, but not now. When youre a writer-for-hire, its your job to know the rules, know when they can be bent or broken, and know when they must be followed. But it aint always easy.

Take this rule: You must never split an infinitive. When you put to with a verb such as to walk, to see, or to split, thats called an infinitive verb. The rule says that nothing can come between the to and its verb. According to this rule, you shouldnt write to boldly go where no man has gone before. And, yet, whats wrong with He began to closely watch his neighbor compared with He began to watch his neighbor closely? Theres no doubt in either case whos watching whom and how.

So, why would somebody even come up with that rule when it doesnt seem to serve any useful purpose? The answer goes back about three hundred years when some English scholars decided that English should follow the same rule of grammar as Classical Latin. They thought Latin was a perfect language, so they didnt care that the two languages simply dont work in the same way. Heres a quick example. In Latin, instead of having to in front of a verb to make an infinitive, you add are or -ere to the end of it. So, AMO VITAM means I love life and AMARE VITAM means to love life. So, in Latin the infinitive is all one word, and you cant very well put anything between the verb and its ending. AM VITAM ARE just doesnt mean anything. In English, since we make a verb an infinitive by putting to in front of it, it really doesnt matter if theres something between the to and the verb. The sentence still makes sense and shows why we dont need the rule.

So, if you want to generally write correctly, which rules do you follow and which ones break? The answer I found that works best is to simply go with my Golden Rule for Writers, which is: Who has the gold makes the rule. Major organizations have style guides, and all your clients have opinions on whats correct and what isnt. When you accept a job, whether youre getting paid or not, you accept the responsibility to write in the style preferred by the person youre writing for. That doesnt mean that you cant suggest that theres a better way. After all, you are the professional, and its your job to produce the most effective copy possible. But, if your opinion isnt accepted, you dont have a choice. I disagree about not putting a comma before the and in a series, and I put one in unless the client says not to. Then I dont. I dont agree, but its tough to argue with the reason because I said so when it comes from the person paying me.

Bill Moore
http://www.WriteRiteRight.com