It’s not always so important that your text is proper, but sometimes you want to make an impression on someone who knows things. And that’s always tricky. Very often your writing is your foot in the door (of your future boss, or your future school, or your future spouse), and is scrutinized for signs of contrariness or ignorance. Both are bad.

The function of an adverb is to modify another word. Someone made the rule that an adverb should follow and not precede a verb, when that verb is used in the infinitive form. You can recognize that form when the particle “to” sits in front of it: to be, to go.

Shortly: it’s verboten to split an infinitive. You can’t put something between “to” and the verb. Why that rule exists, nobody knows (some say it’s because it’s also a no-no in Latin, as if that should matter), but since it’s there, it’s clever to know about it.

If you want to know how to do it, remember the famous Star Trek slogan: To boldly go where no man has gone before. That is wrong, you see. Proper is: To go boldly.

And to make matters worse: adverbs, like adjectives should be avoided like the plague. Well, maybe not like the plague, but like something stinky and moist that’s been laying there for a wile and only gets smellier and stinkier. If you have word that doesn’t exactly fit, you can either pummel it into shape with a modifier, or, and this is recommended, look for a proper fitting word.

Wonders of clarity may also be achieved by simply deleting modifiers. I’ve met quite a few captains in my life. Any one of them who would have urged their crew to go somewhere boldly, would have had a mutiny on his hands. The famous Star Trek rallying cry would have worked just fine without the adverb:

To seek out new life and new life forms. To go where no man has gone before.

Now you’re talking, captain.