Tips and Techniques

Today's Tip

Get your butt in a chair and write!

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Here are tips and techniques posted by other writers like you. Let me know if you have anything to add.

Catherine McGovern

I didn't want to be the first, but here goes. When are we going to begin using the correct relative pronouns? We hear and read all the time "people THAT" instead of "people WHO." I guess this is more of a gripe, than a tip, but I seem to be more aware every day of what I see as a misuse (though none of the reference materials at hand make it perfectly clear) of the pronouns who and that (or, more specifically, of the pronoun THAT). I can't find a suitable rule in Harbrace (eleventh edition) but examples used in 6a(5)A RELATIVE PRONONUN (WHO, WHICH, THAT) USED AS SUBJECT HAS THE SAME NUMBER AS ITS ANTECEDENT include "It is the PHARMACIST WHO often suggests a new brand;" "Tonsillitis is among those DISEASES THAT are incurable." These examples seem to suggest that we should use WHO when referring to people, and THAT when referring to things. Since I am not a grammarian, and since I don't have time to research this much further (though after the Olympics here in Atlanta, I may call my friends at the Georgia State University Writing Center to give an opinion), I look forward to comments on proper usage. In the meantime, I shall continue as I have. Afterall, why use a THAT when a perfectly good WHO will do?