Authors Use Too Many “That”s
Posted on May 1, 2017
One of the things that I notice with writers is that we use too many thats. Okay, that’s my contribution for the day.
Unless you’re getting paid by the word, your writing should be tight. By that I mean, you should eliminate unnecessary words that don’t add strength to the power of the sentence.
Now take a look at my first sentence again. The fifth word is a that as is the eleventh.
“One of the things that I notice with writers is that we use too many thats.”
Notice it doesn’t add significant punch to the sentence. I could just as easily say, “One of the things I notice with writers,” and the sentence has a little more power. It more quickly makes the point. The same principle applies to the second that.
This is actually a really good test. Reread your sentences looking for your thats and see if you can eliminate them without making your sentence unrecognizable. An easy way to do this is to use the Find/Replace function in your word processing software. For example, in Word it’s Control+F on Windows machines and Command (⌘)+F on a Mac.
Now let’s return to the top of my post entry and notice my second sentence.
“Okay, that’s my contribution for the day.”
This that makes a significant contribution to the sentence flow. Could I eliminate it without losing the strength of the sentence? I don’t think so. It would read: “Okay, my contribution for the day.” So there are definite times when your thats do their duty. But sometimes, not so much.
Here is another example. See what you think:
“She feels that a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”
Now take it out and see what you think . . .
“She feels a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” No meaning lost. A nice addition, or should I say subtraction.
Give it some thought in your own writing and see if you don’t agree: that is overused. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Ah, the wonders of the English language!