How about in these examples?
Molly hates Fred isn’t coming to the party.
Molly hates that Fred isn’t coming to the party.
I would argue that the reader gets to the word “isn’t”
and realizes that perhaps the thought that “Molly hates Fred” isn’t
what the writer intended. The reader then has to start over and rethink the
sentence. It seems to me that it is the writer’s job to keep the reader
from doing that extra work.
There is no doubt that the word “that” is unnecessary in
many cases. However, when I train in the business world and when I teach in the
college classroom, I run into a lot of people who have been told to remove all their “thats.” I argue
that they should decide on a case-by-case basis.
Nancy L. Tuten, PhD
Professor of English
Director of the Writing-across-the-Curriculum Program
803-786-3706
From:
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008
9:39 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: The use of
"that"
As I am reading student essays today, I'm
wondering if the use of "that," which many of the
students tend to omit, is necessary in certain circumstances and what
function it serves. For instance:
1) I think that
we should go to the grocery store today rather than Sunday.
vs.
2) I think we should go to the grocery store today
rather than Sunday.
or, a 3rd person example, since the above are more
representative of speech than writing:
3) Jean thinks that
Genuardi's is a better supermarket than Giant.
vs.
4) Jean thinks Genuardi's is a better supermarket than
Giant.
My feeling is that "that" should be in the
sentence. Does it function as a complementizer in the above sentences? (I tend
to get confused with "that" clauses).
Thank you!
Carol Morrison
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