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Purdue OWL News
August 10, 2001

Welcome to the Purdue OWL News!

This is a weekly newsletter written by the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) staff that offers writing help and advice, and updates on what's new at Purdue's OWL and in the Purdue Writing Lab. We've relocated from Listbot to Topica, and we'd like to welcome all of our new and returning members.

Writing Question of the Week

Here's our writing question of the week, brought to you by the Online Writing Lab Tutors here at Purdue.

I have difficulty using each preposition. Please provide rules and many examples for each.

Here's the answer.

Since this is such a large question, we can't answer all of it at once, but we'll try to provide a general explanation, a few rules (but not all of them), and some pointers to more extensive resources about prepositions. If we've left out your favorite preposition rule or use of a certain preposition, we apologize, and hope that you'll find it covered in our handouts or your favorite style manual. Also, sometimes prepositions are used idiomatically, which means that the rules presented here do not apply 100% of the time.

According to the Prentice Hall Guide to Grammar and Usage (4th Ed), "prepositions connect nouns and pronouns to another word or words in a sentence" (p. 107). Generally, prepositions help to express a relationship between the words they are connecting, and you can find guidelines for using prepositions based on the relationship that you are trying to express.

Here are some rules for using prepositions to express certain relationships, drawn from the Prentice Hall Guide (pp. 326-327) and our OWL handouts.

Prepositions of Time

If you're using a preposition to express a relationship related to time (such as time of day or time of the year), follow these guidelines.

"On" is used to express time with days: She went to school on Monday.

"At" is used to express time with hours of the day and with noon, night, midnight, and dawn: The bus arrived at four o'clock. At dawn, the sun rose.

"In" is used to express time with other parts of the day, such as morning, afternoon, and evening, as well as being used with months, years, and seasons: Kate got out of bed in the morning. Robert will graduate in the spring.

Prepositions of Place or Location

Prepositions of location appear with verbs describing states or conditions, especially the verb to be. If you're using a preposition to express a relationship related to place or location, follow these guidelines.

"On" is used to indicate a surface on which something rests: There is a new roof on the house. The train is on the track.

"At" is used to indicate a point in relation to another object: Tom is waiting for his sister at the bank. I'll meet you at the corner of State and Main.

"In" is used to indicate that an object is inside of the boundaries of an area: The sample is in the bottle.

Prepositions of Direction

Prepositions of direction express movement towards something; that something can be real or abstract.

"To" is used (in this sense) to indicate orientation toward a goal. Sa'id returned to his apartment.

"On" (and occasionally "onto") are used to indicate movement toward a surface: The soccer players are practicing on the field. We drove onto the beach in our dune buggy.

"In" (and occasionally "into") are used to indicate movement toward the interior of a volume: Bob jumped in the pool. Deanna poured water into the glass.

Prepositions which Show Logical Relationships

Prepositions can be used to show logical relationships between words in a sentence.

"Of" is used to indicate a relationship between a part or parts and the whole, or to show material or content: One of my professors gave a quiz today. Jean purchased a box of cookies at the store.

"For" is used to show purpose: We bought a new hose for our garden.

We have a lot of handouts on our OWL that explain prepositions and how to use them in great detail. If you want to know more about prepositions, visit these URLs or consult your favorite grammar reference or style manual.

Prepositions of Direction: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslprep.html

Prepositions of Location: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslprep2.html

Spatial Relationships of Prepositions: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslprep3.html

Prepositions of Time, Place, and to Introduce Objects: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/esl/eslprep4.html

The OWL Help Nest

Many of our readers write to us with questions or requests for help with their writing. Readers also write to us with suggestions about how to help people learn more about writing. In this section of the newsletter, we'll try to bring together both the people looking for help and the people who can help them.

Each week we'll publish a request for advice or information. If you have information or advice about this topic, please write to us at owlnews@owl.english.purdue.edu. Please let us know if you want us to include your name and/or your email address when we publish your information or advice. The following week, we'll publish the best information and advice that we receive in the newsletter.

Last week we asked for advice related to proofreading strategies. Here's what our readers had to say.

LaJuanna McKay wrote in with some great proofreading tips:

Do not rely on your word processor's spell checking system. It can help but it doesn't know as much as you do.
Don't get in a hurry. Prepare the material and then lay it aside for as long as you can before you try to proofread. If it is a critical communication, wait until the next day. Give your mind a chance to forget what you wrote.
Read it backwards. You know what you wrote, and so sometimes our minds fill in what we know we said.
Proofread for specific types of mistakes. It make take several readings to get everything just the way you want it. For example, proofread for content, then again for typos.

She also recommends the Online Writing Help articles at http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/writinglab/proofreading_short_v.html and http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/acen/writerslab/handouts/reviseEdit.html.

Thanks, LaJuanna!

We also have some proofreading handouts available at the Purdue OWL at

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_proof.html http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_edit.html http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_stepedit.html http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_commaproof.html.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in with your suggestions! Here's our next request, and it's from one of our readers in Brazil. Can any of our OWL readers in the United Kingdom (or who have written recommendation letters for university applicants in the United Kingdom) help her out?

"A student of mine, who is about to apply to a university in the UK, asked me to write a letter presenting him to this institution. This is a very special 'task' which demands a formal style. I would be very much pleased if I could receive some examples of those kind of letters or to hear about any other way of finding any examples.

Got some help for our readers? Send it to owlnews@owl.english.purdue.edu. Your advice and information about this will appear in next week's newsletter. If you have a general request for help and information, you can send it to us at owlnews@owl.english.purdue.edu and we'll try to include it in the newsletter as soon as possible.

What's Happening On OWL

OWL Eye On... Our Anniversary!

It's been a year since we launched the "new" version of Purdue's OWL, which added new graphics, new content, and a new organization scheme to the site. We're constantly striving to improve the site, and we'd like to thank everyone who has used the site as well as the people who write to us with suggestions and corrections. We really appreciate all of you!

We'd also like to thank the following institutions at Purdue University for all of their support in developing and continuing to develop our OWL: the School of Liberal Arts, the Department of English, the Office of the President, the Office of the Dean of Academic Services, the Multimedia Instructional Development Center, and of course, the Writing Lab!

If you're new to the site, or if you'd just like to find out more about our OWL's history, visit http://owl.english.purdue.edu/lab/owl/history.html.

New and Under Construction on OWL

We have a new hypertext workshop on writing a cover letter available in our hypertext workshops section. This 17-part hypertext, written by Adam Oldaker, covers everything you might want to know about writing a cover letter when you are seeking employment. Visit http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/coverletter/index.html to get started!

Work continues on the printer friendly handouts section, and rumor has it that our business writing consultants are creating even more exciting new content for the fall. Stay tuned!

You can see what new content has been added in past weeks by visiting our What's New page at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/whatsnew.html.

What's Happening In the Writing Lab

OWL Eye on ... Workshops for the Fall

Mardy Philippian, our workshop coordinator, is busy scheduling in-lab workshops for the fall. Watch for flyers with more information around campus, or stop by the Writing Lab to pick up more information.

Teachers can also schedule workshops for their classes; call the Writing Lab at 494-3723 to find out more. We'll be updating our workshops page as soon as the schedule is finalized.

Ongoing in the Writing Lab

This fall, as always, we will have tutorials, workshops for classes, reference materials and handouts, computers and printers for student use, ESL self-study materials, bookmarks, quiet places to study, and a helpful and friendly staff. Stop by and see us and get a free Writing Lab pencil!

Final Thoughts

Thanks for reading our newsletter, and please email us any suggestions you might have! We really enjoy hearing from our readers. You can mail us at any time at owlnews@owl.english.purdue.edu. You can also email the OWL coordinator, Geoff Stacks, at coordinator@owl.english.purdue.edu and the webmaster, Erin Karper, at webmaster@owl.english.purdue.edu. (Erin and Geoff take turns writing the newsletter.)

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