Abstract
This chapter zeros in on the “little words” we use in our writing – prepositions. Prepositions are essential tools, enabling us to elaborate the main action in a sentence by showing relationships. They also, however, set us up to overwhelm the reader with minutiae, particularly when we pile up multiple prepositional phrases. Preposition-heavy writing may give writers a false sense that they’re using words efficiently, when in fact they are both adding to the word count and creating verbal quicksand for the reader. This chapter will help you to identify prepositions, diagnose your writing for prepositional pile-up, and edit to address this problem when you find it.
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Lingard, L., Watling, C. (2021). Avoiding Prepositional Pile-Up. In: Story, Not Study: 30 Brief Lessons to Inspire Health Researchers as Writers. Innovation and Change in Professional Education, vol 19. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71363-8_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71363-8_15
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