including success and failure vs including success and a failure

Both phrases are grammatically correct, but they are used in slightly different ways. 'Including success and failure' is used when referring to a general concept of both success and failure being included, without specifying a particular instance of failure. However, you can use 'including success and a failure' when you want to emphasize a specific instance of failure among other successes.

Explained by Vince
Editor at TextRanch

Last updated: June 29, 2024 • 539 views

including success and failure

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English.

This phrase is used to indicate the inclusion of both success and failure in a general sense.

Examples:

The workshop focused on various aspects of entrepreneurship, including success and failure.
Life is full of ups and downs, including success and failure.
The book explores different leadership styles, including success and failure.

Show examples from the web [+]

Success and failure are in His hands.
What I think I've been talking about really is success and failure.
Timing accounted for 42 percent of the difference between success and failure.
People, not figures, are the difference between success and failure.
I argued that television was a volatile industry in which success and failure were determined week by week.
Part B - Evaluation of success and failure as well as of the efficiency
We followed his roller-coaster ride of success and failure... and now it would seem to be over.
For a combat soldier, the difference between success and failure is your ability to adapt to your enemy.
The United States has struggled for decades with widely varying success and failure, to help ease this Mid-east conflict...
Financing is, together with targets agreed by developed and developing countries, the key factor for success and failure of Copenhagen.
RB: Well, I think that there's a very thin dividing line between success and failure.
So I tried to look across what factors accounted the most for company success and failure.
This, together with the exploitation of female skills in research, could mean the difference between success and failure.
Financial risks can be high for innovation, profitability may be delayed by development hitches and tax may not be neutral between success and failure.
Research and analysis repeatedly confirm the crucial role of the human factor in the success and failure of sustainable energy policies.
Mr President, representative of the Council, Commissioner, in my view, our economic policy is a combination of success and failure.
I tried to look at what factors actually accounted the most for success and failure across all of these companies, and the results really surprised me.
And so while computers alone can catch all but the cleverest fraudsters, catching the cleverest is the difference between success and failure.
Coding, it's an endless process of trial and error, of trying to get the right command in the right place, with sometimes just a semicolon making the difference between success and failure.
After five years of charting a rudderless course between success and failure, it is not so much a matter of knowing what we must do - because after all we do know - it is more a matter of knowing how we are to go about it.

Alternatives:

including both success and failure
including successes and failures
including successful outcomes and failures
including both successful outcomes and failures
including instances of success and failure

including success and a failure

This phrase is correct but less commonly used in English.

This phrase is used when you want to highlight the inclusion of a specific instance of failure among other successes.