In the world of grammar rules, we’ve all heard that “split infinitives” are as unappealing as split ends. But what does that mean, anyway? What is an infinitive and why should I care? My grammar book defines the infinitive as a plain form of a verb plus “to.” Infinitives and infinitive phrases serve as adjectives, adverbs or nouns. Example: To design a mall is to create an artificial environment. (two noun phrases) Malls are designed to make shoppers feel safe . (adverb phrase) The environment supports the impulse to shop . (adjective) A split infinitive puts an adverb between the two parts of the infinitive. For example, Star Trek’s famous line: “ to boldly go where no one has gone before.” Or: She decided to generously pour scotch into the stew. It really is not wrong to split your infinitives, but when in doubt, don’t. Take a closer look at your sentence. Does it read better splitting the infinitive or not? My example about the stew would read better as: She decide...

I pay the bills as a newspaper copy editor. This is an altogether different creature from a book editor. Those of us who punch daily deadlines are the short-order cooks of the publishing world; we read and edit reams of copy in a compressed window of time. In many ways, the pressure-cooker aspects of the job lend themselves to the cultivation of pet peeves -- little word burrs under our saddle that we automatically change to something more palatable (to us, if to no one else). But copy editors aren't alone in this tendency. Anyone who spends time pushing words -- writers and editors -- ends up adopting some of these needy pets. It's all well and good until a few pets become an unmanageable zoo that detracts from the more important aspects of job. Here, then, are some common peeves that often require too much care and feeding to be worthwhile: Split infinitives: In the 1994 film Quiz Show , Charles Van Doren (played by Ralph Fiennes) rather pedantically points out that a TV...