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I teach Academic Writing to international MBA candidates. Plagiarism and research documentation are a very big part of our curriculum. I have often seen that students who include "lifted material" in their papers do so quite innocently. They can talk about the importance of giving credit to the source and of constructing a research trail for their readers, and they can identify effective and ineffective paraphrasing, but they don't put 2 & 2 together when they actually write. In some cases, there is a cultural factor involved in that foreign student writers think that the exact words of the original thinker will carry more authority than their paraphrase. They also often think that sticking a citation note on a lifted section will cover their borrowing. As for approaching them in a tactful way, I try to be as honest as possible. If there are sections of their papers that they obviously didn't write, I show them the inconsistency in the writing styles. They usually recognize that and tell me that they borrowed the section from a source. Then I use the example as an opportunity to practice paraphrasing and documentation with them one-on-one. The rule of thumb that I follow is to allow the students to talk to me about their papers before I make any accusation.--Sharon Ronstadt

Answers:

Writing guidelines have softened the rule on ending with a preposition. The reason for the rule is partially psychological. The beginning and end positions of sentences are places of emphasis or stress. In other words, psychological studies show that readers remember the beginning and end of sentences, not the middle. Do you really want a preposition in a position of emphasis in your sentence? As a writer, you need to balance the location of words with readability. So, if your sentence makes sense to have a preposition at the end, go for it!--Dorothy J. McCawley, Ph.D.

I'm amazed that someone still cares about this grammar nicety. I've been a college English teacher for nearly forty years and have watched the old rule fade into oblivion. It did give rise to some fairly tortured circumlocutions in the old days. Ultimately, of course, the terminal preposition was a class-based indicator. People who used it were inferior to those who avoided it. Today we simply recognize that some situations expect more formal usage--and the terminal preposition is considered informal.

Who you going with?
With whom are you traveling?

Who's it by?
By whom was the book written?

What are you crying for?
Why are you crying?*

*Notice in the last example that an argument could be made for richer content in the informal usage.

The questioner's example: "Whom did you give the money to?" vs. "To whom did you give the money?" The first involves two old rules, both of which are fading away. Normally we would hear "Who'd you give the money to?" ("Whom" is gone and so is the prohibition against the terminal preposition.) In formal writing (or in the case of a trial lawyer questioning a witness), we would probably hear "To whom did you give the money?"

In all effective writing (and speech, for that matter), let your purpose and your audience determine the degree of formality that will get the response you hope for (for which you hope).

Funny story: Little girl calls from top of stairs, "Daddy, come read me 'Little Red Riding Hood.'" Daddy heads upstairs with copy of "Goldilocks." Little girl calls out: "Daddy, what are you bringing the book that I don't want to be read to out of up for?" Cute. Meaning is perfectly clear despite five terminal prepositions.

Real story: High School student writes dialogue: "What did you do that for?" Miss Pringle responds in red: "Avoid terminal prepositions." Student rewrites dialogue: "What did you do that for, huh?"--Robert L. Rosser