Grammar Help Please

[Mr Pickles]

Emailing a 200 person office, I'd like some help with this one please.

We will follow up with laptops that were taken home and any other machines missed this evening on a later date.

We will follow up with laptops that were taken home and any other machines missed this evening at a later date.

Thanks in advance.

 

[KeithTalent]

at

KT

 

[Mr Pickles]

I dunno, I'm getting a lot of "on" suggestions here at work.

 

[RapidSnail]

I doesn't matter.

 

[Allanv]

AT

 

[Mr Pickles]

Originally posted by: RapidSnail
I doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter until the grammar nazi's reply.

 

[sdifox]

You are in ATOT, thus AT.

 

[Mr Pickles]

Originally posted by: sdifox
You are in ATOT, thus AT.

Winnar.

 

[herm0016]

at.

Not sure the rest of the sentence is that great either though. Hard to know if it is good without the rest of the paragraph.

 

[zinfamous]

at

both work, though. "on" is more common-speak for peons, while "at" is grammatically proper.

However, I'm more concerned with the semi-awkwardness of this wording:

machines missed this evening

I guess it's context-sensitive, but seems a bit awkward from my perspective.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Use at. Just do it. Trust me.

 

[sdifox]

if we are going to do rewrite too, try this one

"For the machines that were missed, including the laptops taken home, we will address at a later date."

 

[Paperdoc]

To be honest, I don't think there is a grammar rule to cover this. It is strange, though, that "at" is so commonly used in this phrase. Consider that almost all date events use the "on" preposition. We are meeting on Friday afternoon. We may meet AT Room 73, but it won't be AT Friday afternoon. My anniverary is on Oct 25.

Ahh! But TIME events take an "at". Friday's meeting is AT 3:00 pm. So how did it become so common to say, "... at a later date"?

I agree that the original sentence is awkward. Merely inserting some commas might help. Or, redo as: On a later date we will follow up with laptops that were taken home, and any other machines missed this evening.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: Paperdoc
To be honest, I don't think there is a grammar rule to cover this.

I think there is. Look up the definition of "at" in several dictionaries. The word "at" is generally used (for this purpose) when something can be measured on a scale. Think of a clock, spedometer, thermometer, etc. All are ordered scales and thus you can specifiy where in that order that something is located.

The alarm is set at 7 am. (7 am comes on a scale after 6 am and before 8 am).
The car is travelling at 60 mph. (60 mph is on a spedometer scale after 59 mph and before 61 mph).
The heater is set at 68°F. (68°F is on a temperature scale after 67°F and before 69°F).
The meeting is at room 73. (room 73 is after room 72 and before room 74).

Now condider this sentence. "I purchased my car at Friday". Friday is not clearly measurable on a scale. Was it Friday June 6, 2008 which is after June 5, 2008? Or was it Friday May 30, 2008 which is before June 5, 2008? The sentence isn't clear, there is no scale for "Friday". Thus, we don't use the word "at".


Also, the word "at" is less exact that the word "on". If you say "I am on my house", you literally are situated on top of your roof. But, if you are "at your house", then you could be inside watching TV, outside mowing the lawn, or sitting atop the roof. Thus, if you are inexact, you usually use "at".

 

[Vehemence]

We will follow up with laptops that were taken home, and any other machines missed this evening, at a later date.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Isn't there some rule about mixing tenses? That said, I'm not at all the most grammatically competent person.