NOT before time, the proliferation of the split infinitive in spoken English and its almost tripling since the early 1990s is announced by researchers. ("To actually split an infinitive on the increase," The Herald, September 25).

Instances are encountered almost daily in utterances by politicians and public figures and others in the news reported on television and radio and in newspapers. These split infinitives jar. Many are awkward and ugly.

Sometimes its use can be justified. Famous authors have split the infinitive, and there are examples to be found in literature, the aim usually being to express meaning more effectively. Nevertheless, the majority of split infinitives that I have noticed bring a shudder.

Recent books on good grammar tend to advise that a split infinitive should be avoided if possible and this can be done by rewriting a sentence. One way is for the intervening word that comes between "to" and the verb to be moved elsewhere.

The incident that started the epidemic was the narrated introduction to each Star Trek episode, "to boldly go where no-one has gone before". It could be altered to "to go boldly where no-one has gone before". This form, I would say, expresses the purpose better because the important word is "boldly" and it is given the emphasis intended. The same method can be applied to statements now in preparation for public consumption.

Christopher Reekie,

12 Orchard Drive, Edinburgh.