Recently I have seen many examples of putting no article after the word “as”, such as in the sentence:
Your work as publisher is very fruitful.
On the other hand, I don’t know to what extent I may refrain from putting an article after it. For instance, I cannot think of anybody “being as quiet as mouse.” What do you say?
Your work as publisher (of this paper or in general) is very fruitful.
Your work as a publisher (as opposed to any other work) is very fruitful.
The lack of an article only works in certain cases.
Alright, then these sentences would go like:
He’s been working as publisher of this newspaper for 20 years by now.
He’s been working as publisher for 20 years by now.
But I can’t actually think of an example of those sentences that would require putting “a” after “as” following the rule you’ve described.
He’s been working as a publisher, but now he’s decided to branch out into photography.
Hi Jaro,
The use or non use of the indefinite article ‘a’ after ‘as’ in the examples you are talking about depends on whether the following noun is specific or generic. With reference to the noun ‘publisher’ you could be referring to that kind of occupation (generic) and wouldn’t use an article (a) or you could be specific and pick out that particular occupation and in that case you would refer to ‘a publisher’. Your example of the mouse is relevant. We would have to say ‘as quiet as a mouse’ because we are talking about one particular animal,
Alan