#dangling prepositions

[grrrammar]

Dangling prepositions are prepositions that are stranded at the end of sentences.

Who are you going with?

This is considered bad form.

But the alternative would be: With whom are you going?

That sounds very stuffy. Dangling prepositions are fine to use, most of the time.

[kagenoneko]

Now for dangling prepositions....

Was my technical writing professor wrong when he said that you could use dangling prepositions at the end of sentence if rewriting the sentence to make them not dangle at the end makes the sentence awkward? Follow me under the cut to find out.

I actually have The Chicago Manual of Style (15th edition to be correct) and decided to look up the exact rule since TashTish didn't mention it. Here is the first mention about prepositions ending the sentence from 5.126 in Chicago:

Usually a preposition comes before its object, but there are exceptions. For example, the preposition can end a clause, especially a relative clause, or a sentence.

The second mention of ending prepositions is in rule 5.169 in Chicago:

Ending a sentence with a preposition.The traditional caveat of yesteryear against ending sentences with prepositions is, for most writers, an unnecessary and pedantic restriction. As Winston Churchill famously said, "That is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I shall not put." A sentence that ends in a preposition may sound more natural than a sentence carefully constructed to avoid a final preposition. CompareThose are the guidelines an author should adhere towithThose are the guidelines to which an author should adhere.The "rule" prohibiting terminal prepositions was an ill-founded superstition.

Now, I would say the rule 5.169 explains this concept pretty good. However, I find this post explains it a little more better. This post from Grammar Girl gives a little more details on when not to use prepositions and is pretty detail.