'Understanding why certain writing techniques work the way they do can help you make the right decisions about the style of what you write. I’m talking grammar. Alright, PREPOSITIONS! There, I said it.
Keep reading, though… I spent ages working this bit out, and it’s really useful.
Keep reading, though… I spent ages working this bit out, and it’s really useful.
Because of their role in the language, prepositions don’t mean anything on their own. Their sense of purpose comes from the words they refer to, and in the English language, those words traditionally come either side of the preposition (eg I’m going to the shops).
Ending a sentence with a preposition is a very common feature of modern spoken English, but the fact remains that when we see a preposition in print, we tend to expect another word to follow.
What this means is that a reader can be left with a sense of deflation when a sentence or paragraph finishes with a preposition – giving it a weak ending that can have the effect of undermining what is said in the sentence or paragraph that has gone before.
When writing for business, it pays to leave your reader with a sense of being uplifted, and this can often be achieved simply by finishing the sentence on a solid, positive note. The most effective words to put at the end of a sentence or paragraph are nouns and verbs.
Examples
Consider the following pairs of sentences:
‘This is exactly the sort of business environment that we tend to excel in.'
‘It is in exactly this sort of business environment that we tend to excel.’
And:
‘This is the kind of export market that we have high expectations of.’
‘We have high expectations of this kind of export market.’
The second sentence of each pair has a much stronger ending, and leaves the reader with a more positive, upbeat feeling.
Then again, it is possible to be too pedantic about this. Your language still has to flow properly. As Winston Churchill said:
'This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.'
