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Grammatically Correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation ...

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GRAMMAR<br />

Overdoing this type of sentence construction can make writing<br />

look clumsy or unsubtle, however, so use it with discretion. If there<br />

is an alternative wording that would allow your points <strong>to</strong> come<br />

through just as clearly and elegantly, you should go with it instead.<br />

But do not avoid putting a conjunction up front simply out of<br />

principle.<br />

ENDING A SENTENCE WITH A PREPOSITION<br />

Prepositions are the words that define the relationships between<br />

other words: Please put the skele<strong>to</strong>n in the closet; I'll meet you at<br />

the drugs<strong>to</strong>re after the concert; we went across the country; she<br />

liked her salad with hot sauce on it. Many prepositions have <strong>to</strong> do<br />

with time, space or position.<br />

A persistent myth is that a preposition may never come at the<br />

end of a sentence. For example, many students are taught that<br />

sentences such as It's a subject I haven't thought about and You<br />

have <strong>to</strong> remember where he's coming from should be worded as<br />

It's a subject about which I haven't thought and You have <strong>to</strong><br />

remember from where he's coming. Again, the origins of this cus<strong>to</strong>m<br />

lie in Latin, in which a preposition cannot come after its target<br />

word. In English, however, the effect of ordering words this way is<br />

often <strong>to</strong> turn a phrasing that sounds natural and spontaneous in<strong>to</strong><br />

something <strong>to</strong>rtured.<br />

As with splitting infinitives, you may, as a general rule, prefer <strong>to</strong><br />

avoid ending sentences in prepositions simply because of your<br />

readers' expectations. And indeed, sentences that follow the stricture<br />

sometimes do sound more elegant. For example:<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are a couple of issues I'm willing <strong>to</strong> be more flexible on.<br />

REVISED: <strong>The</strong>re are a couple of issues on which I'm willing <strong>to</strong> be more<br />

flexible.<br />

It's as<strong>to</strong>nishing that there are people this news comes as a surprise <strong>to</strong>.<br />

REVISED: It's as<strong>to</strong>nishing that there are people <strong>to</strong> whom this news comes<br />

as a surprise.<br />

<strong>The</strong>re are some questions there are no easy answers for.<br />

REVISED: <strong>The</strong>re are some questions for which there are no easy answers.<br />

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