That: obscure object of desire
Dec 6th, 2007 by handolio
Charlie and I normally agree on a remarkably high proportion of things, so much so, in fact, that people are beginning to see us as a happily married couple. Just to scotch that particular rumour, then, here’s something we don’t agree on.
Or should that be, “here’s something that we don’t agree on”?
In the context of a blog it obviously doesn’t matter. Few people would insist on that in everyday speech, and those that did would probably sound unnecessarily formal, but how about in a news story?
This is where we start arguing over who gets the pets.
That’s entertainment
Consider the following sentence, which would pass under my red pen without attracting so much as a dot:
Ms Earley said that a possible drop in the number of properties coming onto the market could bolster house prices in the short term.
Harmless enough I’d say, and Charlie probably wouldn’t change it. Had he written it, though, he may have been inclined to omit that – to my mind the grammatical equivalent of running fingernails down a blackboard.
If I’ve understood Charlie correctly, he accepts the need, strictly speaking, for that in a sentence constructed like this. However, his argument is that it may be acceptable to drop it when you’re trying to write accessible news content.
Perhaps he’s right, and he definitely isn’t alone; the BBC’s style is not to use that, often when I think it should. Now I’m sensitised to it, I’ve begun to notice it disappearing from newspapers, too, particularly in the preface to a quote.
Kiss and make up
To be fair, then, if it’s an argument over style rather than who’s technically right we may just have to decide on a per-client basis. As much as anything I think it’s reassuring that we’re both obsessive enough to have the argument.
Provided of course that we’re not expected to give each other flowers and play kissy-face afterwards.
Attention pedants
Before I’m hoisted by my own petard, the first example is probably best concluded “here’s something on which we don’t agree”.
