1. doctortt

    doctortt New Member

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    Need some help with grammar. "of" or "for"

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by doctortt, Dec 1, 2012.

    Hi all, can someone please help? I'm not sure whether I should use "of" or "for."

    'gain the attention of clients (of/for) investment opportunities'
     
  2. chicagoliz

    chicagoliz Contributor Contributor

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    I'd like a little more context, but I'm pretty certain you want "for." I'm assuming that you want clients to notice you so that you can inform them about investment opportunities. They're not clients *of* the investment opportunities. The investment opportunities are not entities providing a service to the clients.

    I'm not really in love with either one, because I think it's a bit unclear. If you're talking about your own already-existing clients, and you want to gain their attention to tell them about new or different investment opportunities, wouldn't you prefer to inform them about these new opportunities? I'm not sure 'wanting to gain their attention' is necessarily what you want to say.

    If you're talking about potential clients, and therefore need to gain the attention of some group of people, hoping to make them clients, because you want them to utilize your services to invest, I think you need to get rid of "clients" in the way you are using it here. You want to gain clients -- not their attention. What you want in that case is to gain notice -- attract the attention of people or some group of people so you can inform them about investment opportunities.

    I suspect you may need to re-word a few sentences to get across the idea you want to convey, because it is not clear from this fragment.
     
  3. doctortt

    doctortt New Member

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    Hi there. Thanks a lot for your feedback. You're right - I'm focusing on prospective clients. What I want to say is that I'm trying to do X to gain the attention of prospective clients for potential investment opportunities. How would you re-word this phrase? Thanks in advance
     
  4. Mercurial

    Mercurial Contributor Contributor

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    I think you just answered your own question! :) "For" makes much more sense to me, as it seems to you as well. One of the uses of "for" is that there is some purpose. In this case, your purpose is that these clients eventually become investors. If you used "of," I think the sentence would imply that the clients somehow belong to the investment opportunities.

    To answer how you might rephrase, I think that "I'm trying to do X to gain the attention of prospective clients for potential investment opportunities" is a good rephrase in and of itself. To dress it up, perhaps something like, "The purpose of [X] is to showcase a variety of investment opportunities available to qualified clients." Something like that. I think words like "prospective" and "potential" may come off as as a bit vague or incomplete, so I'd avoid them, but that is just my two cents.

    Hope this helped!
     
  5. doctortt

    doctortt New Member

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    Thanks a lot. I really appreciate your helping.
     
  6. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    'of' makes no sense at all...

    'for' could, but the wording is still a bit on the awkward side...

    what you seem to be really saying is that you want to gain their attention in order to present those opportunities to them... or gain their attention 'with' info about the opportunities...

    more clarification is needed, imo...
     
  7. MJE

    MJE New Member

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    I would definitely say 'for'. You could try using a comma after clients as well.

    'gain the attention of clients, for investment opportunities'
     
  8. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    "Of" only makes sense if opportunities can have clients. I don't think they can, but in business jargon who knows?
     
  9. digitig

    digitig Contributor Contributor

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    Are they already clients? If so you probably already have their attention.

    I think the reason the sentence is problematic is that the author hasn't yet actually worked out what it is supposed to mean.
     
  10. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    yup!
     

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