QT 24 – Video Transcript and Bonus Info
Welcome back to Toolhouse Rock Studio for another QuickTakes with Cate. Today we get our Harry Potter on with the word “that.”
It’s Christmas morning at Hogwarts when Harry opens a mysterious parcel at the foot of his bed. Inside is something fluid and silvery gray. “It’s an invisibility cloak,” Ron Weasley informs him. Throw it over yourself, and you become invisible—as in this sentence. Do you see where it is hiding a word—the word that ? Twice.
Aunt Petunia often said Dudley looked like a baby angel—Harry often said Dudley looked like a pig
in a wig.
Ahh, here they are.
Aunt Petunia often said [that] Dudley looked like a baby angel—Harry often said [that] Dudley
looked like a pig in a wig.
So which way did JK Rowling write it? Is one way right and one way wrong?
One task of an editor is to delete unnecessary words. Possibly the most hunted word by eager editors is the word “that.” Bryan A. Garner writes, “Those who rabidly delete ‘that’ seem to be overreacting to those who use it excessively.”
So how do we know when to leave it in and when to take it out?
Here’s the magic trick that will help you decide: When a sentence could possibly be misread without the “that,” leave it in. If there is no possibility of misreading, go ahead and take it out.
Consider the possible misreading of this sentence:
Harry found the invisibility cloak, which he unwrapped, felt like water.
Without that, you might read the sentence as follows:
Harry found the invisibility cloak, which he unwrapped…
The word that helps us read the sentence correctly:
Harry found that the invisibility cloak, which he unwrapped, felt like water.
If you do opt to take the word that out of an otherwise clear sentence, remember [that] it’s still there. As JK Rowling tells us when Harry tries to disappear down a narrow corridor, “the cloak didn’t stop him from being solid.”
Oh, and in our original sentence about Dudley, she kept the thats in.
The rest of the story:
Let’s take another look at this sentence:
Harry found [that] the invisibility cloak, which he unwrapped, felt like water.
Without “that” in the sentence, we will at first read “invisibility cloak” as the direct object of the action verb “found” rather than as the subject of a dependent clause. The word “that” signals to the reader the beginning of a new clause.
If you are writing global English, be especially careful not to remove helpful occurrences of “that.” Global English is English that is precise, consistent, unambiguous, and universally readable.
Look for the verbs assume, be sure, ensure, indicate, mean, require, specify, verify, and recommend. Ask yourself whether inserting the word that after these verbs will make the sentence structure clearer. In these instances, the word “that” tells the reader that a noun (dependent) clause follows. (Science and Technical Writing, A Manuel of Style, by Philip Reubens)