Let's Split! [Infinitves] Not!

✍I guess when you teach, and you teach English, you develop some pet peeves.  I inherited this one from my mom, also a teacher, but she was right.  [Or write!] Infinitives should not be split; they are compound words in English. In other words, the infinitive is one word.  For example," the Spanish "leer" means "to read."  It is one word.  "Ir" means to go and is an irregular verb.  I love Star Trek as much as the next Trekkie, but "To boldly go where no man has gone before" is wrong.  Sorry, GR and friends.  It should read, "boldly to go", or "to go boldly."  Also, please add where "no person" has gone before.




It gripes me; I worked for one school where the so called Chair had two fewer degrees than I did.  He was sexist, dishonest, and nasty, but also didn't know grammar.  He produced canned curricula that were full of split infinitives, mistakes in APA citation, misspellings, and more.  We all make mistakes and typos, but we don't all claim to be the Kings of the English Language sans credentials.


So, I had to rant. Sorry.  I was grading essays and hit a few split infinitives; I had to say something for Mom.

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Skyward February 2019

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The Murder Room

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The Tools of Writing

This morning, I reached for a peace of spiral notebook paper; I carefully pulled of the spiral ridges.  It made me think of how important paper was; theme paper v. notebook paper, lined paper in different colors, quite a collectible in the 70s for kids. Then, printing over cursive, pencil over ink, blue/black ink over Flair pens or markers.


Today,  I still sometimes need the feel of a good No 2 pencil, and find that pencils are a great keepsake, useful ones. Good art pencils are no exception, and I actually write in a day planner/calendar.  I am back to flair pens, remembering when during the late 80s, we wrote our bench memos in different colored pens for the Superior Court judges.


I've always loved notecards and stationery, fancy papers, crayons, typewriters manual and electric.  Many of these are coming back. 


There's just something about them


I won't even start on erasers, pencil cases, and sharpeners.


Happy Writing, Happy Thanksgiving