4. Writing connection: The rhetoric of prepositions
4. Writing connection: The rhetoric of prepositions
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1). The frequent use of prepositional phrases in news report headlines
Prepositional phrases are very common in journalism, technical, and academic writing which are dense in information. They are often used along with noun phrases as post-modifiers or with verb phrases as adverbials (of place, time, reason etc.).
2) Strong Prepositions as the FOCUS of sentences
"...that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." — Abraham Lincoln, 1863, Gettysburg Address
A house should be off the hill, not on the hill. — Frank Lyold
"To me, by me, through me, and as me." — Michael Bernard Beckwith The Four Stages in Spiritual Awakening
3) Prepositions showing movement
His gaze drifts down into the vale, across the swamp, up over the solid dusk bank of pines, and rests, bewildered like, on the courthouse tower.
— Jean Toomer, Cane
4) Prepositions: Doing without?
The prepositions are missing in the text below. Can you fill in the blanks?
They had a house _____ crystal pillars _____ the planet Mars _____ the edge _____ an empty sea, and every morning you could see Mrs. K eating the golden fruits that grew _____ the crystal walls, or cleaning the house _____ handfuls _____ magnetic dust which, taking all dirt _____ it, blew away _____ the hot wind. Afternoons, when the fossil sea was warm and motionless, and the wine trees stood stiff _____ the yard, and the little distant Martian bone town was all enclosed, and no one drifted _____ their doors, you could see Mr. K himself _____ his room, reading _____ a metal book _____ raised hieroglyphs _____ which he brushed his hand, as one might play a harp.
— Ray Bradbury, Martian Chronicles
They had a house of crystal pillars on the planet Mars by the edge of an empty sea, and every morning you could see Mrs. K eating the golden fruits that grew from the crystal walls, or cleaning the house with handfuls of magnetic dust which, taking all dirt with it, blew away on the hot wind. Afternoons, when the fossil sea was warm and motionless, and the wine trees stood stiff in the yard, and the little distant Martian bone town was all enclosed, and no one drifted out their doors, you could see Mr. K himself in his room, reading from a metal book with raised hieroglyphs over which he brushed his hand, as one might play a harp.
— Ray Bradbury, Martian Chronicles
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