That/Which

[Fred Shapiro]

Here's a question that has bothered me for years:  Why are American
copyeditors so absolutely insistent on using "that" where the British use
"which" and so many of the best American writers through the years have
used "which"?  This usage should be called "the copyeditor's that."

If anyone can shed light on the history and rationale, if there is any,
for this obsession, I would be most grateful.


Fred R. Shapiro                             Coeditor (with Jane Garry)
Associate Librarian for Public Services     TRIAL AND ERROR: AN OXFORD
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL STORIES
Yale Law School                             Oxford University Press, 1998
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               ISBN 0-19-509547-2