Sunday, August 19, 2007

Overdeleting that

Have you ever heard the advice to delete unnecessary thats? It's good advice unless you make it a fetish. If you overdo it, you give readers constant miscues like these:
  • The judge held the glass was not a deadly weapon.
  • Mr. Li acknowledged being a minority made him more sensitive to discrimination.
  • The defendant argues eventually the housing supply will increase.

If you don't know where that belongs in these sentences, check out Garner's Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage under "Miscues" and "that."

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