The most enduring complaints by Irish Times readers are those about spelling and grammar.

Because of the sheer volume of words processed during a brief period each evening, no newspaper in the world can guarantee to be error-free. In The Irish Times, most of the errors are in fact picked up - but sometimes only at a late stage in the process. The decision to break into a page late at night is made on the basis of time and clarity; if the meaning is clear, despite the error, then it is generally deemed more important to get the paper printed than to remake a page and risk missing transport connections.

Nevertheless, imparting information clearly and concisely is at the core of a newspaper's job, so a high standard of written language is essential. To this end, The Irish Times uses a "style book" which includes chapters on punctuation, foreign words and phrases, titles and ranks, and a list of words that are commonly misspelled, misused or confused.

Readers are particularly annoyed by, and quite often have letters published about, the confusion between "affect" (to have an influence on, to make a change in) and "effect" (to bring about, to result in). The use of "insure" (take measures against risk) when it should be "ensure" (make certain) and "flaunt" (display ostentatiously) when it should be "flout" (disregard or treat with disdain) also causes much irritation.

But it is a grammatical point that raises most readers' hackles: the split infinitive. Those who phone up say that it is completely unacceptable in good English - but is it always wrong to split an infinitive, even when not to do so sounds wrong or cumbersome? Must we always follow the rules? Should usage determine the rules?