Grammatically Correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation ...

Bugbears and
Betes Noires:
Some Grammar
Taboos That Aren't
This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.
-WINSTON CHURCHILL, on the notion that one shouldn't end
a sentence with a preposition
Just as the spellings and meanings of individual words evolve,
so do the rules governing how they should be strung together. In
some cases, a grammar convention commonly believed to be a rule
is in fact not one, despite generations of students being taught to
follow it unquestioningly. When it comes to language, very little
is carved in stone: Attitudes change, rules become more flexible,
authorities eventually bow to common usage and adjust their
dictums. There may not always be a consensus on the changes,
so some writers will choose to bypass conventions they view as
cobwebby while others continue to uphold them. Those conventions
that are seen as having the least to contribute to clarity are
the likeliest to fall by the wayside.
The present section looks at three aspects of grammar that
may be considered to lie in this category: splitting infinitives,
starting sentences with conjunctions and ending sentences with
prepositions.
SPLITTING INFINITIVES
An infinitive is the to form of a verb: to bellow, to whine, to connive,
to go. Splitting an infinitive means to put some word (usually an
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