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There is little doubt that a burning desire can, in certain situations, be a valuable quality. Firstly, our ambitions allow us to organize for our future career success, which in turn, leads to prosperity for ourselves and our family.

Is the use of 'organize for' is correct in the sentence? I tried to use an online dictionary, but I think dictionary often don't tell use which preposition to use. If you know where I can find this kind of information, please let me know and thank you very much! (I tried google too.)

(Source: Beacon English)

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  • Please include a link to the source.
    – Alan Carmack
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 1:44
  • Link to the source: beaconenglish.com/task-2-ambition-319-words May I ask why should I include the link and should I do this every time I ask a question? I tried to find rules for asking questions but I didn't find it... Thanks :)
    – EXL
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 1:48
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    Yes, every time. There are many benefits. They aren't the rules, but it helps everyone. Please, everyone… details. Please.
    – Em.
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 1:57
  • @EmmaXL (1) Context is a major determiner in whether something is correct or not (2) We want to make sure you are quoting the source correctly (3) It is probably illegal, and defintely discourteous, to quote someone else's work and not give proper acknowledgment. In your case, the source does not say organise, it says organize, and while this is only a spelling difference between British English and American English, nevertheless, there are times when something is grammatical in one and not the other--so knowing which dialect we are reading is helpful.
    – Alan Carmack
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 2:21
  • @EmmaXL (4) sometimes sources differ: scanned works sometimes contain errors that photographed works do not; (5) In order to provide the best answer that I can, I want to read the original. If you don't provide a link to the source, then I have to go find it; thus, you are making more work for me. (6) The more effort you put into a question, the more I appreciate it and the more likely I am going to think that you care about what you are asking, and that you will care about receiving an answer to your question that shows at least as much effort as you took to ask it. (7) Context. :)
    – Alan Carmack
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 2:29

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Short answer: a lot of native speakers use organize for. A search of authentic examples suggests that its usage is 'correct', even though some readers (such as myself, a native speaker) may not be thrilled with it.

Longer answer:

I do not particularly like organize for. But when I search Google Books, it brings up a lot of authentic uses. See my search results. Sometimes Google results can be deceptive, but even as far as Page 6 of the results show authentic uses by native speakers.

Organize for seems to be used along the lines of prepare for. The latter is a collocation that is time tested as 'correct'. Language is always changing, and although not everyone may like organize for, apparently enough people do, so that it would be presumptious to say that it is not correct.

I do not know every single usage in the English language that people use that is considered correct by at least a large segment of native speakers: in New York people say stand on line to buy a movie ticket; in the rest of the USA we say stand in line to buy a movie ticket. If I said on line is wrong just because I don't use it or like it, I would not be using a very good criterion for my statement. That is why I have to check what other native speakers are saying.

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    In Manhattan (or the city), we stand on line, but we never stand on a line.
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 5:09
  • @Alan Carmack Thank you very much for you detailed reply! I tend to not use it if it is not widely accepted or standard English :) Thanks again!
    – EXL
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 5:29

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