You may have been taught at school that you shouldn’t use a preposition to end a sentence. This is a hangover from Latin and Greek – sentences in the two languages never ended with prepositions.

Years ago I worked in the public relations department of Britain’s Science and Engineering Research Council and was taken to task by my boss for ending a sentence with a preposition. He told me it was; “Something, up with which, I will not put” – a quote from Winston Churchill.*

But that was then, and this is now. The grammar police won’t agree with me, but I’d argue this is a rule you can comfortably ignore for everyday writing, business writing, journalism and all types of online communications.

In practical everyday writing there will be many cases when it simply doesn’t make sense to contort your sentences to avoid ending with a proposition. Your writing will be clearer and easier to understand.

And you’ll be in great company. Most newspaper style guides allow it, most popular authors and the overwhelming majority of modern literary authors simply sidestep the rule.

*Churchill was on my side in this. I suspect my boss didn’t realise the quote was said as a joke.

Further reading:
Better writing: Rhythm
Better writing: Companies are singular
Better writing: The inverted pyramid
Better writing: Keep it simple
Better writing: And
Better writing: Go easy on the adjectives
Better writing: Capital letters

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Newspaper journalists are taught to write using the inverted pyramid structure.

It isn’t always appropriate, but the inverted pyramid has worked well for news stories since the days reporters telegraphed their dispatches to their editors. Today it works well for online writing.

The structure is similar to the classic essay structure you were taught — or should have been taught — at school.

Its most basic format goes something like this:

• Introduction — say what the piece is about; Answer questions like who, what, where and when. You can also explain why at this point, although that can wait until later.
• Then — expand, amplify;
• Keep doing this until you’ve told the whole story. Make the most important points first then add more and more detail in each additional paragraph.

Traditional newspaper editors often cut a story from the bottom if it needs to fill a specific space on a printed page. The inverted pyramid structure, with each paragraph being progressively less important, means editors remove the least crucial information first.

In principle, a news story written using the inverted pyramid structure can be cut at the end of any paragraph, even the first paragraph, and still be a self-contained story. In the online world this means search engines pay more attention to the most important words – which helps people find your writing. Those opening paragraphs also make neat summaries for listings and similar online uses.

So, to recap, the most important information goes in the first paragraph and each extra paragraph of subsidiary information carries progressively less weight. That’s where the inverted pyramid name comes from: the foundation sits at the top, the less important details are at the bottom.

This was written last week as a reply to a question on Linkedin.

I’m a career journalist and editor (almost 30 years now). I mainly blog to learn more about blogging and how it works. It’s a way of staying current. Right now I’m on my fourth blog and I think I’m getting the hang of it.

What have I learnt so far?

1. You don’t need fancy software to blog.
2. The free hosting services are as good as or better than self-hosting.
3. Blogging can take up a huge amount of time, but it doesn’t have to.
4. There’s a community aspect to blogging that isn’t apparent until you dive in and do it yourself.
5. Blogging is similar, but not the same as journalism.
6. My blogs don’t tend to drive traffic to my website, nor do they deliver any direct economic benefits.

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