{"id":111,"date":"2008-01-16T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2008-01-16T18:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/01\/click-here-if-this-page-does-not-refresh-in-one-minute\/"},"modified":"2008-01-17T11:06:32","modified_gmt":"2008-01-17T17:06:32","slug":"click-here-if-this-page-does-not-refresh-in-one-minute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2008\/01\/click-here-if-this-page-does-not-refresh-in-one-minute\/","title":{"rendered":"“Click here if this page does not refresh in one minute.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw this on Houston’s water-bill-payment website.<\/p>\n

Problem:<\/strong>
\nThe preposition “in” is misleading in this sentence.<\/p>\n

Explanation:<\/strong>
\nThis imperative sentence implies that the reader should click the “here” link in the event that the page does not refresh exactly one minute after it first appears.<\/p>\n

However, my experience with the page is that it always has refreshed itself sooner than that, so the sentence should not tell the reader that the page requires exactly one minute to refresh itself. Instead, the sentence should tell the reader that the page requires up to<\/em> one minute to refresh itself.<\/p>\n

The correct preposition for this sentence is “within” because one of its definitions is in the period of<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I believe that the use of “in” in place of “within” supports my “Devolution toward Simpler” hypothesis. It’s simpler to write or say “in” than to write or say “within”.<\/p>\n

Solution:<\/strong>
\n“Click here if this page does not refresh within one minute.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw this on Houston’s water-bill-payment website. Problem: The preposition “in” is misleading in this sentence. Explanation: This imperative sentence implies that the reader should click the “here” link in the event that the page does not refresh exactly one minute after it first appears. However, my experience with the page is that it always…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devolution-toward-simpler","category-prepositions"],"yoast_head":"\n"Click here if this page does not refresh in one minute." - Kirk Mahoney . com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2008\/01\/click-here-if-this-page-does-not-refresh-in-one-minute\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Click here if this page does not refresh in one minute." - Kirk Mahoney . com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I saw this on Houston’s water-bill-payment website. 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