Reducing Compound Prepositions

Burning Calories

At this point in my blog, I would like to discuss compound prepositions. In case you don’t know what a compound preposition is, the opening sentence is a great example. Instead of using the phrase “at this point in my blog”, I could substitute it for the word now and place that now after “I would” to create the sentence “I would now like to discuss compound prepositions.” As you can see, I have eliminated the compound preposition by using a single word, which is often how this problem is resolved. By using a single word, I am able to convey the same meaning more efficiently.

Some other examples of compound prepositions are:

Wordy Compound Preposition	Shorter Form
as to whether or not	whether
at a later date	later
at this point in time	now
at such time, at which time	when
by means of, in accordance with	by
despite the fact that	although
due to the fact that, inasmuch as, in view of the fact that	because
for the amount of	for
in advance of, prior to	before
subsequent to	after
the manner in which	how
until such time as	until

Reference:

Guffey, M.E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2008).  In A. Williams (Ed.), Writing Process Phase 3: Revise, Proofread, Evaluate. Business Communication:  Process and Product, Sixth Canadian Edition (pp. 175-181). Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education Ltd.