Why It's OK to Sometimes Split Infinitives in Papers

I have on occasion split the infinitive and one should never do that. Yet it’s hard to remember what is so bad about splitting infinitives, except that it offends those people who had their grammar belted into them and never dared to ask questions. You should certainly not ignore the rules of style in favor of expediency, but there are situations where only a split infinitive gives the right emphasis. "Write down key words or short sentences as they come to mind. "Arrange the keys in

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"Write down key words or short sentences as they come to mind. "Arrange the keys in logical order. "Write a single concise sentence defining each key. If you can‘t, you may be working on more than one key. Break the thought into two or more keys and try again. "Link the sentences together logically with one additional sentence. If it takes more than one additional sentence to link two key sentences, you’ve failed. Go back to the beginning and repeat all the previous steps. " Fill in with sentences that make a readable, elegant article. Do not stuff or pad it. Emphasis in scientific writing is all important, whether it be a research paper, thesis or grant application. Your results do not speak for themselves and the circuitous way by which you have managed to reach your research objective is not really of much interest to the audience. What matters ...

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