What I've Learned

There is a horrid little beast called the compound prepositional phrase.

Regular prepositional phrases are a good thing. If nouns and verbs are the bones and muscles of English, prepositional phrases are the veins and arteries. They run through our language, providing a life blood of understanding.

There are nearly a hundred prepositions. Combined with nouns (called the object of the preposition), they form such phrases as: to the end, at the time, on the table, in the air, over the rainbow, under the stairs, around the bend, of the sort, down the chute, until the end, among the greats, off the wall, and with a flare.

Prepositional phrases can serve as adjectives or adverbs.

As adjectives, they point out which thing or person is being talked about. The book on the table is green. Which book? The one on the table.

As adverbs, they explain when, where, or how something happened. After the king kissed the chambermaid in the hall, the queen clobbered him with a vase.

Compound prepositional phrases – pardon me while I spit – are two regular phrases that have been jammed together into one. Politicians and lawyers love them, because if they laden their speech with these double-decker phrases, it becomes difficult to understand what they're talking about.

Here's an example of a compound prepositional phrase: at that point in time. It is made up of two phrases, "at that point" and "in time."

This is different from two phrases simply following each other, as in, "The girl in the chair to the left began to sing." A compound prepositional phrase is two phrases, not just side by side, but sewn together.

My complaint against compound prepositional phrases is that they kill momentum, both in fiction and nonfiction. They bog down writing until it can hardly move and dies like a mastodon in a tar pit.

Here's what I mean.

Miranda yanked open a kitchen drawer and fumbled for a weapon. At that point in time, the robber was still in the alley.

Can you feel how the compound prepositional phrase bogs down the action? Get rid of it.

Miranda yanked open a kitchen drawer and fumbled for a weapon. The robber was still in the alley.

Here are some (they have a myriad of cousins) fancy-sounding, but action-killing compound prepositional phrases. During the course of. In a manner similar to. In the immediate vicinity of. With regards to. For the purposes of. With respect to. From the point of view of.

Picture a policemen testifying at a trial and using such phrases.

"During the course of the investigation, it was found that at that point in time, in regards to the night in question, the alleged perpetrator was in the immediate vicinity of the location of the crime, for the purposes of, it is believed, breaking and entering, in a manner similar to previous violations of the law."

Such talk could cause a juror to nod off, fall out of her chair, and injure herself.

Compound prepositional phrases can usually be reduced to single words. During the course of, for example, can be reduced to during. In the immediate vicinity of can be reduced to near. In a manner similar to can be reduced to like. And so on.

"During the investigation, we discovered the accused was near the victim's home that night, intending, we believe, to rob it, like he had other homes."

As I said at the start, compound prepositional phrases are horrid little beasts.

Don't use them in your writing. If you come across them in your reading, mentally slap the author.