Doctor's notes

These are language and grammar ‘issues’ that some less experienced editors dutifully correct, but that are perfectly acceptable in English.

• ‘And’ or ‘but’ at the beginning of a sentence.
• Prepositions (e.g. ‘to’, ‘of’, ‘at’, ‘by’, ‘with’) at the end of a sentence.
• Split infinitives (e.g. ‘to do’, ‘to be’) – ‘to boldly go’, ‘to happily edit’.
• Referring to ‘data’ in the singular – ‘data is’, ‘data has’.

For more zombie rules that refuse to die, see the CIEP’s free fact sheet.