I have a doubt: should I write:
- I worked as a teacher, as housekeeper manager, as a Rep, etc.
or
- I worked as a teacher, housekeeper manager, Rep, etc.
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2Did you intentionally omit "a" before "housekeeper manager" in the first example?– JasperCommented Jan 17, 2019 at 17:40
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@Jasper: Good point. For bonus points, can you think of any context where a "deleted" term could "validly" be *re-introduced" in a subsequent element within such a list? Offhand, I can't.– FumbleFingersCommented Jan 17, 2019 at 17:55
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4@FumbleFingers: "JQ Adams served as a Senator, as President, and as a Representative." Sounds correct to me to drop the article in front of President, even in a list, but perhaps technically incorrect.– Matthew WCommented Jan 17, 2019 at 18:06
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1@MatthewW: I'm not sure "technically incorrect" means anything here. But your example sounds fine to me, so you get the bonus points (or at least, a comment upvote, which is the best I can offer! :)– FumbleFingersCommented Jan 17, 2019 at 18:35
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1 Answer
Both versions are syntactically fine, but idiomatically native speakers would tend to "delete" all "highly predictable" repetitions of as a in such contexts (or at the very least, delete repeated as).
There's a slightly greater chance that the more verbose version would be understood as meaning I've had several different jobs - for example [blah blah], where the shorter version could be interpreted as My job involved covering several different roles - for example [blah blah]. But that might be because we always tend to look for a more "unusual" interpretation if someone uses less common phrasing, not because of anything inherent in the words themselves.
Per the comment to the question (OP's current text omits a from the second item in the list, in case that gets edited out later), I should point out that it's very unusual (some might say "invalid") to delete any repeated element from such a "list" and then re-introduce it in a subsequent element. You should probably assume you never want to do that.
answered Jan 17, 2019 at 17:46
