RE: Within vs. in

["Tammy Van Boening" <Tammy -dot- VanBoening -at- healthlanguage -dot- com>]

Thanks all - some neat responses and opinions and references provided.
The summary - "in" is in and "within" is out - how's that for a lousy
play on words!

Thanks again,

TVB

Tammy Van Boening
Senior Technical Writer 
Health Language, Inc. 
Office: +1 (303) 307-4400 x254 
www.healthlanguage.com 

-----Original Message-----
From: Stuart Rogers [mailto:srogers -at- phoenix-geophysics -dot- com] 
Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 12:58 PM
To: Tammy Van Boening; Lone Writers
Subject: Re: [stclwrsig-l] Within vs. in

Tammy Van Boening wrote:
> All,
> 
> I can find all kinds of references for the correct use of in to vs.
> into, but nothing for within vs. in. I use "in" and I have a SME who
> insists on "within." It's not worth getting my hackles all raised for
> this issue, but for my own edification, any thoughts, references, etc?
> To me, they mean the same thing and simpler writing is better, so I
> stick with "in." (Kinda' like on or upon.)
> 

"Within" is more commonly used to emphasize "inside boundaries" or "in a

range".  For example, "he leaves in a week" means he leaves in 7 days, 
whereas "he leaves within a week" means he leaves sometime in a range of

7 days.  "It was in his grasp" means he had it in his hand; "it was 
within his grasp" means it was inside the boundaries of his reach.

However, "within" can also mean just "in", e.g., "a folder within the 
Temp folder", in which case your preference for the simpler word is 
justified.

HTH,

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

srogers phoenix-geophysics com

If it makes things work more easily, why isn't it called lubrican?

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