Re: Proper placements of prepositions

Subject: Re: Proper placements of prepositions
From: Richard Mateosian <srm -at- C2 -dot- ORG>
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 1996 22:56:49 -0800

>When you modify your CDHome catalog you are actually modifying the
>recipe file on which it is based.

>When you modify your CDHome catalog you are actually modifying the
>recipe file which (that?) it is based on.

I'd lose a lot of the verbiage. "Actually" rarely contributes anything, and
this simple cause-and-effect statement is clearer without the gratuitous
personal vignette. There's nothing wrong with "on which" if you prefer it,
but it does make the sentence needlessly longer.

* Modifying the CDHome catalog modifies
the recipe file it's based on.

* Modifying the CDHome catalog modifies the
recipe file on which it's based.


>You need to tell the application with which file the catalog table
>should be merged in order to create the .BLA file.

>You need to tell the application which file the catalog table should
>be merged with in order to create the .BLA file.

Both of these are too long, and the "with which" is misplaced.

* To create the .BLA file, specify the file to merge
the catalog table with.

* To create the .BLA file, specify the file with which to
merge the catalog table.


All of these choices are matters of personal preference. What sounds clean
to me may strike you as overly terse. Chacun a son gout. ...RM

Richard Mateosian http://www.c2.org/~srm/ President, Berkeley STC
Freelance Technical Writer srm -at- c2 -dot- org Review Editor, IEEE Micro


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