Wednesday, January 23, 2019

word choice - Use of “of” vs “from” to identify one’s company/department



I was reading this document about conducting business meetings with customers, and in the Opening meeting section I noticed this sentence:





On joining, identify yourself (Hello everyone. This is (name) of company-name (department))




So basically they are saying that I should say




Hello everyone. This is Abc of Xyz Development.




Isn't from more suitable? I would say:





Hello everyone. This is Abc from Xyz Development.



Answer



In a nutshell: "from" implies in origin.



In this case "of" is used because "from" would imply that you ARE from development and came from there such as in: "I came from X department". If used in this case, that could mean you were transfered from Development to some other department (ambiguous, I'd say). On the other hand, the use of "of" means you are related to Development at a non-specified degree, including the degree of working there.


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