June 12, 2008
Grammarian
My deadline for reporting my continuing education compliance is coming up fast and I'm still short on credits, so yesterday found me at a day-long seminar on improving one's legal writing. Even though I fancy myself a better-than-average writer, the class did point out some gaps in my knowledge. Like the proper usage of that versus which in sentence clauses. How could I have not known that that is used in restrictive clauses and which is used in nonrestrictive clauses? I mean, it's so obvious. Observe:
The CLE that I attended yesterday was mildly interesting and somewhat overpriced.
The CLE, which was mildly interesting, was somewhat overpriced.
Posted by wintermute2_0 at June 12, 2008 07:52 PM
Comments
You are joking, aren't you?
What I've learned about it is that the "antecedent" must be defined, if you want to put a comma and "which".
-The Atomium, which is made of alluminium, was built for the 1958 world exhibition in Brussels.
-Your style, which most people enjoy, is characterised by the use of funny ideas!
-The style (that) I consider the best is Henry James's, b ecause of its melodious and romantic fluency.
Posted by: Mieke Verstraete at June 13, 2008 04:00 PM