That or which?
I'm working on fixing up some documentation for a release. I came across this:"Before you begin, the export domain must be attached to the data center which contains the virtual machine to be exported."
I thought "which" looked awkward, but wanted to double check. I found this resource:
Which says:
"Use which (surrounded by commas) if a group of words adds information. Use that if it limits the set of things you're talking about"
Seems simple enough. But not so fast.
My colleague informs me that this approach to "that and which" was popularized by Strunk and White in the 1920's. Before then, the words weren't used consistently as restrictive(that) and non-restrictive(which) clauses.
He didn't have a counter example, and I am happy to accept a simplified approach on this issue. In my edit, I substituted "that" for "which", and went to get a soda.
If someone reads this, and thinks of an example where this guideline doesn't work, please comment.
I have always used that and which in that manner. The rule must still be accepted as correct because when I took the TechComm 101 STC certificate (end of 2010), we were taught that rule again.
ReplyDeleteI checked out one of my favourite resources, Grammar Girl, and found that she agrees with the which vs that rule as stated. Here's the location of that post, which includes a few examples, for those interested:
ReplyDeletehttp://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/which-versus-that.aspx