1. Starting a sentence with and or but

• The rule that you should never begin a sentence with and or but is dead. Today, rule books encourage it, professional writers do it, it has rhetorical value, and it makes sense.

2. Split infinitive

• Infinitive:The word to followed by a verb form: to be, to find, to dance

• Split infinitives: A split infinitive puts a modifier between the word to and the verb form:
  to always be, to never find
• For Example:
  For her to never complain seems unreal.
  I wished to properly understand programming.

• Unsplit infinitives:
  always to be
  never to find

• For Example:
  He wants to learn how to write well.

• Note: Even if you neither know nor care what a split infinitive is, the right place to be on the issue is: knowing how to distinguish between the two types of infinitive structures listed above.

• When you make a list, be sure each item in it has basically the same structure. The term for having a similar structure is "parallelism."

• For Example:
  Don't Write
  A typical business report has these preliminary elements:
  • a cover page
  • a table of contents
  • it also has an executive summary

  Do Write
  A typical business report has these preliminary elements:

  • a cover page
  • a table of contents
  • an executive summary

• Note: Make sure the lead in matches the list
  Don't Write
  Allow yourself time for:
  • prepare a cover page
  • organize a table
  • write an executive summary

  Do Write
  Leave yourself time for:

  • preparing a cover page
  • organizing a table of contents
  • writing an executive summary

  Leave yourself time for:

  • cover page preparation
  • organizing a table of contents
  • writing an executive summary

4. Comma Splices & Fused Sentences

• These are serious punctuation errors.

• Comma Splice:
  A comma splice happens when you join two sentences with only a comma:
  We hiked for two days, we were very tired.
  The television is too loud, the picture is fuzzy.

  You can fix comma splices by changing the comma to almost any other mark of punctuation such as:
  a colon
  a semicolon
  a dash
  a period
  

• For Example:
  We hiked for two days: we were very tired.
  We hiked for two days; we were very tired.
  We hiked for two days-we were very tired.
  We hiked for two days. We were very tired
  

  Or, you can add a coordinating conjunction like and or so after the comma:

• For Example:
  We hiked for two days, and we were very tired.
  We hiked for two days, so we were very tired.

• Coordinating Conjunctions:

  and
  or
  but
  nor
  so
  for
  yet
  

  Just to confuse the issue...
  The following words are conjunctive adverbs (*not* coordinating conjunctions) and cannot be used after a comma splice:

• Conjunctive Adverbs:

  accordingly
  as a result
  consequently
  first
  for example
  furthermore
  however
  indeed
  in fact
  instead
  likewise
  moreover
  nevertheless
  next
  otherwise
  still
  therefore
  unfortunately
  

  You need some sort of terminal punctuation before it (colon, semicolon, dash, etc.):
  We hiked for two days; therefore, we were very tired.
  We hiked for two days. Therefore, we were very tired.
  We hiked for two days; we were, therefore, very tired.
  We hiked for two days. We were, therefore, very tired.
  

5. Fused Sentence

• A fused sentence is simply a comma splice without the comma and they are always *wrong*.

• For Example:
  We hiked for two days we were very tired.
  The television is too loud the picture is fuzzy.

• Fix fused sentences the same way you fix comma splices -- by putting in some terminal punctuation (colon, semicolon, dash, period) or by adding a comma and a coordinating conjunction (line and or but).