{"id":681,"date":"2015-07-01T22:00:57","date_gmt":"2015-07-02T02:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/?p=681"},"modified":"2018-06-27T16:05:59","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T20:05:59","slug":"wicked-which-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wicked-which-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Wicked “Which” II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1047433836_d9d9af94f9_z\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Last week (http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wicked-which\/), I tried to make the which<\/em>\u00a0vs.\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0dilemma less scary, and I promised you a few postscripts. All three relate to using\u00a0that<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Bonus tip #1<\/h2>\n

Whenever we edit our work and come across that<\/em>, we should see if\u00a0that<\/em> is serving any purpose. For example:<\/p>\n

I never knew that<\/span> Kate and Keith were twins.<\/em>
\n Having pored over last year’s budget, I am certain that<\/span> we can add a part-time HR person.<\/em><\/p>\n

Does that<\/em> clarify anything or make either sentence easier to comprehend? No. In fact, I feel sure no other word can be deleted from our rough drafts as often as that<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Bonus tip #2<\/h2>\n

Often, we can write even more economically by cutting that is<\/em>,\u00a0that\u00a0were<\/em>,\u00a0that have been<\/em>, or that<\/em> and some other form of the verb to be<\/em>:<\/p>\n

I collected all the pastries that were<\/span> left after the meeting and delivered them to the day care center.<\/em> Edited: I collected all the pastries left after the meeting and delivered them to the day care center.<\/em><\/p>\n

The panel reviewed all the scripts that had been<\/span> crafted during the semester and chose two for production.<\/em>\u00a0Edited:\u00a0The panel reviewed all the scripts crafted during the semester and chose two for production.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bonus tip #3<\/h2>\n

When that<\/em> is needed, but it refers to a person, we refine our writing by using\u00a0who\u00a0<\/em>instead.<\/p>\n

She is the doctor that<\/span> treated my uncle.<\/em>\u00a0Edited: She is the doctor who treated my uncle.<\/em><\/p>\n

Max is the graduate student that<\/span> assisted the dean. <\/em>Edited:\u00a0Max is the graduate student who assisted the dean.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Incidentally, failing to change that<\/em> to who<\/em> in these instances is not wrong in the same sense that using an incorrect pronoun or verb tense is wrong. It is simply a missed opportunity to use the better word.<\/p>\n

In addition to presenting workshops on writing in the workplace, Norm Friedman is a writer, editor, and writing coach. His\u00a0<\/em>100+ Instant Writing Tips<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is a brief \u201cnon-textbook\u201d to help individuals overcome common writing errors and write with more finesse and impact. Learn more at\u00a0http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/index.shtml<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week (http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wicked-which\/), I tried to make the which\u00a0vs.\u00a0that\u00a0dilemma less scary, and I promised you a few postscripts. All three relate to using\u00a0that. Bonus tip #1 Whenever we edit our work and come across that, we should see if\u00a0that is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.normfriedman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}