商務英語郵件寫作指南：介詞of大揭秘（一）
I find that non-native English speakers tend to use the word “of” much too often. “Of” is also frequently used incorrectly instead of other prepositions.
我發現非英語為母語的人經常用of這個詞，但是這個詞比起其他介詞來，也更常被誤用。
Non-native English speakers tend to write, for example, the attorney of the claimant where native speakers would write the claimant’s attorney. Although both structures are grammatically correct, phrases like the attorney of the claimant increase the “wordiness” and complexity of a sentence and make your writing more difficult to read.
非英語為母語的人喜歡這樣表達“the attorney of the claimant”（原告的律師），而英語國家人士則習慣于這樣表達“the claimant’s attorney”。雖然兩種表達在語法上都是正確的，但是用of的詞組表達則顯得語句更為累贅，使句子更加難以理解。
Here are some examples:
看下面的這些例子：
Bad Style Good Style the decision of the regulatory authority the regulatory authority’s decision the approval of the Management Board the Management Board’s approval the consent of the Meeting of Shareholders the consent of the Shareholders’ Meeting the representative of the Company the Company’s representative the total remuneration of the Contractor the Contractor’s total remuneration Note that all these examples refer to a person or a group of people – i.e. the claimant, the regulatory authority, the Management Board, the Shareholders’ Meeting, the Company and the Contractor.
以上的例子所指代的對象都是某人或由某些人組成的組織，比如原告、管理機構、管理局、股東大會、公司和承包人，所以可以用’s來代替of。
Now look at other examples:
再看下面這組例子：
Bad Style Good Style German law’s perspective the perspective of German law the contract’s termination the termination of the contract the claim’s rejection the rejection of the claim the contract’s annex the annex to / of the contract the judgement’s date the date of the judgement the plans’ realisation the realisation of the plans
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There are no people involved in any of these examples, so it is better to use of instead of ’s.
這些例子里，都沒有涉及到任何人，所以在這里較為恰當的用法還是使用of來代替’s。
I should add, however, that this is a general rule, and there are exceptions to it. But if you follow this rule, it should – most of the time – make your writing easier to read.
我要特別指出的是，這是一條通用法則，當然還有特殊情況。不過，如果你學會了這條法則的話，大多數時候，你的英語寫作會更容易閱讀。
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