I teach English as a second language to Czechs. A common “Czenglish” mistake is to say “the way how to do”. This is a literal translation of a standard Czech phrase, “způsob, jak dělat”. I find myself having to explain that “how” is a normal pronoun, not a relative pronoun (who, which, that, whose, or where), and thus must be used in place of, and not after, a noun.
I used to tell people that the proper form to use in English is “the way of doing”, or, less formally, “the way to do”. However, I haven’t found any other authority for “the way of doing” being more formal.
Is “the way of doing” completely synonymous/equivalent to “the way to do”, or is my feel for the former as being more formal than the latter correct?
To my ear “the way of doing” applies to generalities and “the way to do” is for a specific task. Here’s a couple of examples of what sounds natural to me.
The way to do that project is to first read the instructions, then gather the supplies, and then follow those instructions.
The way of doing things here in Texas is different than the way of doing things in New York.
As a native speaker of British English, I can’t think of a situation in which I would ever use “the way of doing” - but I can’t explain why. It’s a perfectly understandable and grammatically correct phrase, it just doesn’t ‘feel right’ to me. Sorry if that’s not very helpful.
ETA: OK, the example in the post above does make sense to me. But I would suggest it’s a fairly rare circumstance. If I were you, I think I would just teach “the way to do” and drop “the way of doing”.
Agreed that “the way of doing …” sounds odd and clumsy, and that “the way to do …” is what should be taught.
As for the Texas thing, one acceptable variant would be something like: The way we do things here in Texas is different than the way they do things in New York.
Or else the variant that glee gave, except that I would use “than” rather than “from”: Texans do things differently than New Yorkers.
One would say that “Texans are different from New Yorkers”, but the meaning in the previous statement is that Texans do things differently than (the way New Yorkers do them), where I think “than” is more apporpriate as the introduction to the second element in a comparison.
Agreed, just to note that “different than” is not a common construction in British English and therefore often feels unnatural to me - but (a bit like correct usage of “gotten”, which is also uncommon in Britain) I must admit the logic appeals to me.
I think they are nearly identical and any preference for one phrase over the other is personal taste.
I would say that in my neck of the woods “the way to do something” is much preferred over “the way of doing something”.
I think the only time I would use the “of doing” construct is if I was highlighting that my recommendation is just one option: “That is one way of doing it” vs. “That is one way to do it”. Even then I imagine that I’m more likely to use the “to do” form more frequently unless I really want to point out that the option chosen was actually not the best idea (“That’s one way of getting down the stairs” when somebody just fell down them).
I also think that with a possessive subject you should probably use the “of doing” form - “That’s this baker’s way of making bread” vs. “That’s this baker’s way to make bread”. Or “That’s my way of playing chess” vs. “That’s my way to play chess”.
To my ear, there’s a difference between the two phrases. The way to do something is a specific process. The way of doing something is a style in which things are done.
A real world example has been mentioned in this thread. As a New Yorker who’s spent a lot of time in Texas, I’ve noticed the store employees in Texas commonly engage in long conversations with customers while this is rare in New York.
So let’s say you’re a cashier and a customer is buying a soda. The way to do the sale is the same in both states. You scan the item, tell the customer what the price is, ask them if they’re paying with cash or credit, ring the price in to the register, collect the money, and give the customer their change and receipt.
But the way of doing the sale is different. In New York, you would just follow the above steps and maybe add “Have a nice day” at the end. In Texas, you would ask the customer if they had any plans for the upcoming weekend early in the process. If they said they didn’t, you would tell them that you were going to a church barbecue on Sunday afternoon. The men from the fire department would be cooking up some beef ribs while the women’s auxiliary would be making sides and salads. You were planning on bringing some potato salad, using your grandmother’s recipe which added mustard. Your grandmother’s family was German and they liked adding mustard to everything. You feel that’s going overboard but you do like it in potato salad and other people seem to like it too. Those that don’t can eat some of the other sides instead. Maybe the cole slaw your sister is bringing. And here’s your change. Have a nice day.
I’ve just noticed the two constructions toward the beginning of the David Attenborough documentary “Flying Monsters 3D.” A few minutes after he says, “…has a way of doing this that’s extraordinary,” he says, “…and the way to do this is to…”
Not a perfect fit, of course, since the OP asks about “the way of doing.”