Preposition Responses

["Barbara J. Philbrick" <burkbrick -at- AOL -dot- COM>]

Thanks for all the help - the suggestions were helpful (and made me slap my
forehead for not seeing the options).

Some of the responses I got follow (sorry for the repeat, but some people
requested a synopsis). Responses were about 50/50 for and against, so my
final decision is that it's best to reword. My next task is to get better at
spotting them - I tend not to notice!

I finally decided to go with the following:

Customer Contacts Voice Phone     Enter the contact's daytime phone number.
Customer Contact Fax Phone     Enter the contact's FAX number.
Shipping Address State      Enter the postal code for the
        shipping destination.

Subj:       Winston's Quote and prepositions
Date:  94-04-28 16:49:42 EDT
From: lffunkhouser -at- HALNET -dot- COM
To:    BurkBrick

I saw Winston Churchill misquoted *twice* here today, so I had
to step in.  Here is the quote:

"This is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put."

-- Winston Churchill
----------------------------
For further explanation, I submit the following
from _Engineered Writing, A Manual for Scientific, Technical,
and Business Writers (2nd ed)_ by Melba Jerry Murray and Hugh
Hay-Roe, pages 181-2:

"...a preposition is sometimes the best word to end a sentence with.
The Latin preposition was literally a pre-positioned word; in
accordance with its name and use, it had to come *before* something.
That's how we came by the 'rule' that you can't end a sentence with
a preposition.  Nevertheless, modern English includes a long list of
such constructions:

  What is that all about?
  This is a manufacturer (whom) we can count on.
  I don't know what it is for.
  That's a deep subject (which) we're getting into.

People who tolerate pedantry are responsible for the kind of
foolishness that once appeared on an office bulletin board.  The
company credit union was publicizing money to lend; below a
breezy picture of a hand in which a real penny was taped was
this stiffly 'correct' note:
    '--And there's more from where that came!'"

LaVonna
lffunkhouser -at- halnet -dot- com

Subj:  RE:      Re: Prepositions ending sentence
Date:  94-05-02 14:35:34 EDT
From: harrison -at- dsnacq -dot- SINet -dot- SLB -dot- COM
To:    BurkBrick

Barb:

The first re-wording that comes to my mind is:

Enter the phone number *where* the contacts can be reached.
Enter the fax number *where* the contacts can be reached.
Enter the postal code for the state where the orders are to be shipped.

Hope this helps!

Barbi Harrison
harrison -at- dsnvx1 -dot- sinet -dot- slb -dot- com

Barbara,


How about these?

Customer Contacts Voice Phone     Enter the contact(s) daytime phone number.
Customer Contact Fax Phone     Enter the contact(s) FAX number.
Shipping Address State      Enter the state's postal code for the
        shipping destination.


Val Tassari
tassari -at- cgi -dot- com


Subj:  Prepositions ending sentences
Date:  94-05-02 14:46:17 EDT
From: Norma_Shulman -at- bose -dot- com
To:    BurkBrick

Date 5/2/94
Subject Prepositions ending sentenc
From Norma Shulman
To Barb Philbrick

 Subject:              Prepositions ending sentences
Barbara,
Subject:      Re: Prepositions ending sentence

Have you considered using the descriptive information as a adjective phrase,
such as:
Enter the Customer Contacts phone number
Enter the Customer Contacts fax number
Enter the shipping address postal code

Field Name                                          Description
Customer Contacts Voice Phone    Enter the phone number at which the
contact(s)
 can be reached.
Customer Contacts Fax Phone       Enter the fax number at which the
contact(s)
can be reached
Shipping Address State                 Enter the postal code for the state to

where the orders are to be shipped

After all this discussion, I'd be interested to hear what you decide to use.

Norma Shulman, normashulman -at- bose -dot- com
Tech Writer
Bose Corporation
Framingham, MA 01701



Subj:  Re[2]: Prepositions ending sentence
Date:  94-05-02 14:47:56 EDT
From: sodonnell -at- ccmail -dot- wiu -dot- bgu -dot- edu
To:    BurkBrick


Field Name                                          Description

Customer Contacts Voice Phone   Enter the phone number at which the
contact(s)
can be reached.
Customer Contacts Fax Phone     Enter the fax number at which the contact(s)
can
be reached
Shipping Address State                Enter the postal code for the state to
where the orders are to be shipped


IMHO, leave the first two--they sound fine. The last one has too many "to"s:
how about "Enter the postal code for the state to which [or where] the orders

are being shipped.

Again, IMHO.

Sean
sodonnell -at- ccmail -dot- wiu -dot- bgu -dot- edu
Subj:  Re:      Re: Prepositions ending sentence
Date:  94-05-03 01:50:53 EDT
From: suepstewrt -at- aol -dot- com
To:    BurkBrick

Enter the contact(s) phone number.

Enter the contact(s) fax number.

Enter the state postal code for the shipping address.

:-)  simplify!  suepstewrt -at- aol -dot- com