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I'm a bit confused by the following phrase "To all students who participated in/on Monday's workshop..." and I can't quite get my head around it... Which preposition should I use, "in" or "on"?

I know we should use "on" for days of the week, but in this case we normally use the structure "participated in" when an activity is involved, such as the workshop.

In advance, thanks for your help!

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  • You participate in a workshop. You work on a project. That's just how it is.
    – Robusto
    Commented Apr 25, 2015 at 11:57
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    You participate in a workshop, in a boring workshop, in a workshop lasting several days, in Monday's workshop ... // The workshop might take place on Monday, after work, in several weeks time, during the holidays, Monday (dropping the preposition), at the weekend....
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Apr 25, 2015 at 13:04

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If the phrase had been

To all students who participated in the workshop on Monday...

instead of

To all students who participated in/on Monday's workshop...

I suspect that you wouldn't have had any trouble identifying "in the workshop" and "on Monday" as the correct prepositional phrases. If so, the key question here is, Which preposition controls when you rephrase "on Monday" as a possessive and position it in front of "workshop"?

The answer to that question is evident from the fact that when you reword "on Monday" as "Monday's," the preposition on disappears: "the workshop on Monday" and "Monday's workshop" are interchangeable. As a result, you don't you don't have to choose between in and on at the beginning of the combined prepositional phrase; you simply insert "Monday's" between "in" and "workshop," and drop the "the." Thus, "on Monday" (in the form of "Monday's") joins the existing prepositional phrase "in the workshop" as a subordinate element.

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