Hello Zig,
My research indicates that either form is acceptable grammatically,
but split infinitives are often viewed as bad style. If you are
working on an English paper or something which will be read by a very
strict grammarian, here's my suggestion: Play it safe and use “better
to convey the meaning” or “to convey the meaning better” unless it
makes the sentence unnecessarily awkward.
AskOxford.com and Bartleby.com (see links below) report that even
expert grammarians disagree about the use of split infinitives. The
idea that they are incorrect emerged from Latin grammar, where
infinitives are one word. Because Latin infinitives cannot be split,
the idea arose that English infinitives likewise should not be split.
But, according to Bartleby.com, many famous writers were splitters
anyway, including Ben Franklin, Willa Cather, and William Wordsworth.
Bartleby.com
Split Infinitive
http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/059.html
AskOxford.com
Frequently Asked Questions: Grammar
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/splitinfinitives
Dennis G. Jerz of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (see link
below) has this to say about split infinitives: “Although the
influential New Oxford Dictionary of English recently admitted that
'in standard English the principle of allowing split infinitives is
broadly accepted as both normal and useful' (August, 1998), there are
nevertheless plenty of people who consider it unacceptable.” His
advises that “ ... it's best never to split infinitives (unless you
want to really emphasize something)."
Split Infinitive (Dennis Jerz of UW-Eau Claire)
http://www.uwec.edu/jerzdg/English110/grammar/split.html
If you do use split infinitives in your writing, please refer to the
Bartleby.com link above for splits involving more than one word. It
turns out that grammarians tend to accept one word splits, but putting
more than one word between the infinitive parts is not widely
accepted. For example, “to better convey” would be satisfactory. But
to write “to even better convey” would be viewed as bad form.
I hope this answers your question. Please let me know if you require
any clarification prior to rating this answer.
Search Terms: grammar + split + infinitive
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=grammar+split+infinitive
Best Wishes,
fsw (who happens to be a habitual splitter) |
