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Being always confused, I would appreciate which is correct usage of "part of" or "a part of" in the following case with brief explanation as to how I should differ either. I have checked dictionaries and articles/speeches on the websites.

There are a lot of young people who want to be a part of the movement(or part of the movement).

comaneci
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  • Please consider including what you've understood from your references. Also please evaluate if your question would be better received in English Language Learners @http://ell.stackexchange.com/ – BiscuitBoy Sep 12 '16 at 08:17
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    https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=be+part+of+the%2Cbe+a+part+of+the&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cbe%20part%20of%20the%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cbe%20a%20part%20of%20the%3B%2Cc0 shows it's a matter of style IMO –  Sep 12 '16 at 08:29
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    They're both grammatical. 'Be part of' is almost completely unmarked (compare 'be in'), whereas 'be a part of' connotes 'form [perhaps part of] a subset of' much more strongly. Perhaps for this reason, IMO 'be part of' sounds more clinical while 'be a part of' hints at camaraderie. – Edwin Ashworth Sep 12 '16 at 09:41

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