{"id":304,"date":"2014-12-16T21:00:28","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T21:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/?p=304"},"modified":"2018-06-26T15:01:58","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T19:01:58","slug":"eliminating-those-pesky-ofs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/eliminating-those-pesky-ofs\/","title":{"rendered":"Eliminating Those Pesky “Ofs”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"144288877_6155192a2c_z\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Like an annoying mosquito or gnat spoiling an ideal summer evening, the word “of” often mars an otherwise perfect sentence. In fact, those erroneous “ofs” are so easy to miss, they crop up frequently in books, newspapers, and magazines\u2013\u2013and certainly in our everyday speech. But if we commit to editing with a search-and-destroy approach, we can eliminate the unwanted “ofs” in our writing.<\/p>\n

The three hiding places<\/h2>\n

The solution is simple. We just need to check whether the preposition “of” is needed after three other prepositions we use regularly: “inside,” “outside,” and “off.” Let’s illustrate.
\nAllie’s new home sits inside <\/span><\/span>of<\/span>\u00a0the city limits.
\nHallie likes having the coffee maker right outside<\/span><\/span>\u00a0of<\/span> her\u00a0office.
\nSally has lived off of<\/span><\/span>\u00a0her pension for 20 years.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In how many of those sentences should we reach for the bug spray? Right! All of them. We really meant to write this:
\nAllie’s new home sits inside<\/span><\/span>\u00a0the city limits.
\n<\/span><\/em>Hallie likes having the coffee maker right outside<\/span><\/span>\u00a0her\u00a0office.
\n<\/span><\/em>Sally has lived off<\/span><\/span>\u00a0her pension for 20 years.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The exceptions for idioms<\/h2>\n

So every time we spot “of” after “inside,” “outside,” or “off,” we should use the bug spray, correct? Sorry. Not so fast. We need to allow for the correct use of “inside of” as a figure of speech meaning “in less than”\u00a0or “fewer than.”
\nIf we don’t hit much more traffic, we’ll arrive inside of<\/span> an hour. <\/em>(Meaning “in less than.”)
\nShe estimates that\u00a0inside of<\/span>\u00a010 contracts won’t be renewed. <\/em>(Meaning “fewer than.”)<\/p>\n

And we need to allow for the correct use of \u00a0“outside of” meaning “except” or “except for.”
\nEveryone enjoyed the seminar outside of<\/span> Eric. <\/em>(Meaning “except.”)
\nOutside of<\/span>\u00a0regular maintenance, I had no car expenses this year. <\/em>(Meaning “except for.”)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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So there you have it. “Off of” would never be correct, but “inside of” and “outside of” are correct on occasion as figures of speech. Generally, however, “inside” and “outside” do not need a wingman. Now that you’re armed with understanding and bug spray, go get ’em.<\/p>\n

Postscript.<\/strong>\u00a0Scanning a list of prepositions, I identified one more\u2013\u2013used far less often\u2013\u2013that could be followed by a useless “of”: “opposite.” So instead of writing “opposite of the drug store,” we want to write “opposite the drug store.”<\/p>\n

In addition to presenting workshops on writing in the workplace, Norm Friedman is a writer, editor, and writing coach. His\u00a0<\/em>100+ Instant Writing Tips<\/span>\u00a0is a brief \u201cnon-textbook\u201d to help individuals overcome common writing errors and write with more finesse and impact. Learn more at\u00a0http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/index.shtml<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like an annoying mosquito or gnat spoiling an ideal summer evening, the word “of” often mars an otherwise perfect sentence. In fact, those erroneous “ofs” are so easy to miss, they crop up frequently in books, newspapers, and magazines\u2013\u2013and certainly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}