use of "whether...or" construction

[surik]

Could anyone please check if the following sentence is correct "As I reached the end of my 6 month contract period, I would be glad to hear your decision on whether or not we will continue working together in 2016 ? "

 

[bhaisahab]

"As I have reached the end of my 6 month contract period, I would be glad to hear your decision on whether or not we will continue working together in 2016."

 

[tedmc]

bhaisahab
Why was my earlier post wrong?

 

[bhaisahab]

bhaisahab
Why was my earlier post wrong?

You completely changed the meaning.

 

[Barb_D]

Note: 6-month contract period should have a hyphen.

 

[tedmc]

You completely changed the meaning.

Really? Tell me where I went wrong or how I changed the meaning of the sentence, so that I can learn.

I remember I did the following changes(numbered in red):

As I have reached 1 the end of my [STRIKE]6 [/STRIKE] six-month 2 contract period, I would be glad to hear your decision on whether [STRIKE]or not[/STRIKE]3 we 4 [STRIKE]will[/STRIKE] are allowed 5 to continue working [STRIKE]together [/STRIKE][STRIKE]in 2016 [/STRIKE] 6? "

1. I changed the past tense to present pefect as bhai did.

2. I hypenhated the word (as per Barb's comment) and changed the figure to word (which is recommended for single digit number, isn't it?)

3. "Or not" in "whether or not" is redundant.

4. I questioned why OP started the sentence with "I", then changed to "we".

5. I think this is the part you might have found misleading. Let me explain.
The sentence is about a person who has reached the end of his employment contract and wants to know (his employer's decision) whether the contract will be renewed. The renewal is subject to his employer's approval, in other words whether the his employer would allow the contract to be renewed.
I believe this is a clearer and more straightforward way of saying "..whether or not we will continue..".

6. The issue of whether the person can continue working is current, so "in 2016" is understood. It does not make the sentence any clearer.
"Together" raises the question "together with whom"?

 

[Rover_KE]

Your amendments introduced unnecessary deletions and complicated what was essentially a correct, simply expressed sentence.

It would be better if in some cases you waited for native speakers to answer first.

 

[tedmc]

Your amendments introduced unnecessary deletions and complicated what was essentially a correct, simply expressed sentence.

Rover
Could you please be specific as to which parts of the items 1-6 above that are unnecessary, wrong and misleading?

 

[Raymott]

As I have reached 1 the end of my [STRIKE]6 [/STRIKE] six-month 2 contract period, I would be glad to hear your decision on whether [STRIKE]or not[/STRIKE]3 we 4 [STRIKE]will[/STRIKE] are allowed 5 to continue working [STRIKE]together [/STRIKE][STRIKE]in 2016 [/STRIKE] 6? "

1 is the only correction necessary.
3. "whether or not" is a perfectly good phrase, and the OP must be wondering why you changed it. (This goes for any changes to a correct text.)
4. 'I' and 'we' are the correct pronouns because he wants to know if they will continue working together.
5. 'allowed' is wrong. It's a very unnatural way to ask if your contract is going to be extended.
6. 'Together' with the person to whom he is writing, the person who is responsible for giving the go-ahead on his renewal. I interpreted the sentence as indicating that only two people were involved.
"in 2016" is not necessarily redundant.

I didn't see your original reply. But the OP was asking whether it was correct, and the only incorrect part was 1. 'have'. I believe that correcting good English can only confuse the learner unless you explain why you are suggesting the change.

 

[tedmc]

Raymott
Thanks for the thorough explanation. That is exactly what I wanted.
You have left out item 2 though. I think that is necessary as well.
5. It is for the employer to approve/allow the extension/renewal of a contract, no? OK, I agree that "allow" is more commonly used with giving permission but I don't think it is wrong.
4 & 6. There is nothing to imply that only two people are working together, the employer and the employee, so there's the ambiguity.

I will definitely be more careful with the 'delete' key.

 

[Raymott]

Yes, 2 is a legitimate change.
5. Being "allowed to" work longer is a strange way to say your contract has been renewed.
4 & 6. It's possible that 'we' refers to someone other than the sender and receiver. But it makes sense, so there's no reason to change it.
Anyhow, think about when you were learning English. If you asked for an opinion on a sentence with one or two errors in it, you would expect those one or two errors to be corrected, not all the correct bits. Since I didn't see your original post, I'm not sure how you presented your changes - whether it was a suggestion of a different way of expressing it, or simply as an incorrect 'correction'.

 

[bhaisahab]

For information, this is the content of tedmc's deleted post:

"As I have reached the end of my [STRIKE]6 [/STRIKE]six-month contract period, I would be glad to hear your decision on whether[STRIKE] or not [/STRIKE]we will be allowed to continue working [STRIKE]together in 2016.
[/STRIKE]

Why have you started the sentence with "I" and then changed to "we"?"