rvernon
unread,May 6, 2008, 3:58:46 PM5/6/08Sign in to reply to author
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to stc.louisiana
No matter how many times you read over your edit, there are those
times when it is inevitable—you submit your draft, and it is returned
by a smirking coworker with advice spoken just a little too loudly.
“I before E, except after C” or “You forgot to bold one word at the
bottom of page 168.” Or, even worse, a Reply to All with those
helpful words “can means that you’re physically able to.”
It is the bane of all technical writers—you edit someone else’s
grammar, and you look like a know-it-all. Others correct your work and
act as though they have earned an award.
Usually, I am able to shrug it off. I make the change if it is valid
or quietly shelf the helpful suggestions. There is just one edit that
infuriates me: “You can’t end a sentence with a preposition.”
Thanks to the careful training of teachers and college professors, I
am always fully conscious of the position of my prepositions. I am
even wary of adverbs that can be misconstrued as prepositions. But my
days as a student are far enough in my past that I no longer feel like
a rebel when I find that the most comprehensible phrasing places the
preposition at the end.
But sometimes I integrate the preposition or even avoid certain
adverbs to avoid confrontation.
How do you feel about prepositions at the end of sentences?