ns have style guides, and all your clients have opinions on what’s correct and what isn’t. When you accept a job, whether you’re getting paid or not, you accept the responsibility to write in the style preferred by the person you’re writing for. That doesn’t mean that you can’t suggest that there’s a better way. After all, you are the professional, and it’s your job to produce the most effective copy possible. But, if your opinion isn’t accepted, you don’t have a choice. I disagree about not putting a comma before the and in a series,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 we’re not supposed to. An educated person in the 17th Century could say ain’t, but not now. When you’re a writer-for-hire, it’s your job to know the rules, know when they can be bent or broken, and know when they must be followed. But it ain’t 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, that’s called an infinitive verb. The rule says that nothing can come between the to and its verb. According to this rule, you shouldn’t write “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” And, yet, what’s wrong with “He began to closely watch his neighbor” compared with “He began to watch his neighbor closely?” There’s no doubt in either case who’s watching whom and how.

So, why would somebody even come up with that rule when it doesn’t 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 didn’t care that the two languages simply don’t work in the same way. Here’s 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 can’t very well put anything between the verb and its ending. AM VITAM ARE just doesn’t mean anything. In English, since we make a verb an infinitive by putting to in front of it, it really doesn’t matter if there’s something between the to and the verb. The sentence still makes sense and shows why we don’t 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 what’s correct and what isn’t. When you accept a job, whether you’re getting paid or not, you accept the responsibility to write in the style preferred by the person you’re writing for. That doesn’t mean that you can’t suggest that there’s a better way. After all, you are the professional, and it’s your job to produce the most effective copy possible. But, if your opinion isn’t accepted, you don’t have a choice. I disagree about not putting a comma before the and in a series,

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.casualarticles.com/article/164486/casualarticles-Really-Easy-Grammar--No-38-Why-To-Calmly-Split-an-Infinitive.html">Really Easy Grammar – No. 38: Why To Calmly Split an Infinitive</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.casualarticles.com/article/164486/casualarticles-Really-Easy-Grammar--No-38-Why-To-Calmly-Split-an-Infinitive.html]Really Easy Grammar – No. 38: Why To Calmly Split an Infinitive[/url]

Related Articles:

Food Metal Detectors

An essential part of a comprehensive contamination control program, food metal detectors are primarily used in food and pharmaceutical industries to detect metal contamination in packets or products. With the highest accuracy and reliability, a food metal detector has the ability to detect all types of metals - whether it is ferrous, non-ferrous, or stainless steel. It plays a prominent role in ensuring product safety, equipment protection and regulatory compliance in the food industry. Furthermore, it is vital to enhance the reputation of a firm.

Calendars, Popcorn, and Fruit… Oh My!

The days of sending calendars, popcorn, and fruit to your current customers are over. Most executive offices look like FEMA warehouses, littered with absurd amounts of food. Stop contributing to this gross display of corporate gift sending ignorance by taking advantage of the opportunity to stand out from sales teams all around the country. This is your chance to be different. Choose gifts that will be appreciated and recognized, not thrown into a pile of other identical gifts.

Issues of Financial Independence

So often we hear how hard it is in America to retire with financial independence. We hear horror stories that only a small percentage of our population has any money in retirement and that most folks are poor in their later years.

Bookmark it: