That is the Question

Today’s topic is short and sweet. What, pray tell, are we discussing, why the use and abuse of the word that.

While a fine word in and of itself, this particular word often leads to lazy writing and lack of clarity. Do your utmost to excise it from your writing, and you’ll find you both strengthen and clarify your sentence, two particularly good things to do with writing of any kind.

For example:

The hat that the characters see in the room is flat.

As opposed to:

The characters see a flat hat in the room.

Both say the same thing, but, as you can read, the second sentence has more pop (or as much pop as one can hope for from a flat hat).

Now go forth and write well. Until next time, I bid you dear reader, adieu!