That/Which

[Frank Abate]

In partial response to Fred S's query, I can say that I was taught, when learning (on the job) to be an editor, to use "that" instead of "which" for so-called restrictive (traditional term) or essential (AP Stylebook term) clauses.  The exception is only when "that" is used as a conjunction introducing another clause in the same sentence, where "which" is then OK (e.g., from AP: "He said Monday that the part of the army which suffered severe casualties needs reinforcement").

This advice appears in a number of stylebooks, besides AP, and may originate from Strunk & White or some other guide in the stylebook pantheon.  I don't have any handy except AP, but I'm sure others do and can chime in on this.

I have since trained others to follow the same rule.  We regularly replace the whiches in draft entries for dictionaries (where appropriate), and have found that Brit-edited dictionary definitions often have "which" where we in the US prefer "that".

Perhaps Mary Beth Protomastro at Copy Editor has better and fuller info on this issue?

Frank Abate


American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:
>
> 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
>