Whether or not or not

brianleeeee

QUESTION

I am writing a dissertation. There is discussion among us about which of the following is correct:

Implicitly, teachers may be choosing whether or not they wish to assist students in their moral development.
or

Implicitly, teachers may be choosing whether they wish to assist students in their moral development.

Someone who is an English major said that we no longer use the \"or not.\" Please advise. Thanks so much!


RESPONSE

Burchfield says that allowing the alternative (the \"or not\" or a clearly expressed alternative) to be understood is \"legitimate\" in a \"limited range of circumstances,\" but then he doesn't describe the limited range. He also says it's much less common than providing the alternative expression (the \"or not,\" etc.). That's not a big help, but it does say that it's possible to leave out the \"or not\" and be acceptable. I'd use \"or not\" in that sentence to make the notion that teachers are making a choice (implicitly or not) more evident.

Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996. Used with the permission of Oxford University Press. (under whether)