So my reporter brother, aka the next Matt Lauer, mentioned to me a few months back that his professors in college discouraged using the word "THAT." My mom agreed and said her grad school professors said the same thing.
Well, I'm a little bit of a grammar junkie. As I contemplated this most important topic, I decided (that?) I agreed with this advice and began eliminating my usage of "THAT" whenever possible.
But...I just read a book (I happened to be editing it actually) and deleted the vast majority of "THATs." Out they go!! Now I'm reading Barack Obama's book (The Audacity of Hope). There are THATs all over the place. It's rather distracting, really. Frankly, it is detracting from my reading experience.
I'm still not sure it is correct to banish THATs so liberally. So, I have set out to find the answer. Are you ready?
It looks like "THAT" is a relative pronoun. These link clauses together, for instance: I'm wearing the coat that I bought at the store. In English, if the relative pronoun is not the subject you are allowed to not use it. This is called a "zero relative pronoun." (See http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/grammarlogs2/grammarlogs361.htm)
Therefore, I say we do away with a lot of our THATs. They make things far too wordy for me.
Friday, February 22, 2008
That...
Posted by Brittany at 5:48 PM
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4 comments:
Thanks for the grammer lesson. I'll try and limit my usage of THAT.
I'm so glad to have one reader of my little blog, and a whopping two comments. :)
Hey Brit! I have been checking the blog everyday. I listened to Audacity of Hope on tape--I really liked it. Not saying Iam voting for him, but he seemed tlike a decent fellow.
I will give you a call soon.
I'm sticking with THAT. I think it's a good word to fill in areas that need a word. Actually, I'm sure you know a lot more about grammar than me, so I'll try and correct my mistakes. Well done!
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