That/Which

[Sallie Lemons]

Ditto. At J-School this is the style we followed.

Frank Abate wrote:

> 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
> >