Cut That Out! The overlooked editing trick (#358)

Growing up in Australia, where “proper English" was prized and verbosity often mistaken for precision, I was slow to appreciate the American instinct for cutting to the chase.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the unapologetic willingness of Americans to delete a surplus that.

At first, I was horrified - every dropped that felt like a grammatical crime.

But after nearly 50 years in the U.S., I’m beginning to appreciate the wisdom in the American way: clearer, cleaner, and refreshingly to the point.

The Cluttered Clause Habit

You know that moment when you read back over something you’ve written, and it sounds ... off?

Not wrong, exactly - just bulky, awkward, like someone dressed your sentence in three sweaters and a scarf for a walk across the Sahara?

Chances are, you’ve got Too Many That’s.

Let’s be clear: that is not the enemy. It’s a perfectly respectable, hard-working word. It introduces essential clauses, clarifies meaning, and occasionally saves a sentence from syntactic chaos.

But overuse it, and suddenly your prose sounds like it was assembled with an Allen key and too many leftover screws.

Example

She believed that the idea that he proposed was better than the one that the committee suggested.

Yikes.

That’s a "that-astrophe."

Let’s declutter:

She believed his idea was better than the committee’s suggestion.

Breathe. Space. Flow.

Why It Happens

Writers often sprinkle that into their sentences as a kind of verbal scaffolding. During drafting, we tend to write "how we think," and that helps keep our thoughts stitched together.

But thoughts aren’t always elegant. They ramble, repeat, and hedge. So, while that helps us build sentences, it can also bloat them.

When “That” Is Needed

Sometimes, that is doing important work. For example:

• To avoid ambiguity:

  
  

  • I heard the rumor that she got the job.(Without that, we might misread it as hearing her get the job.)

• After certain verbs:

  
  

  • She insisted that we stay.(Insisted we stay feels abrupt. Keep the that.)

When “That” Is Just Loitering

Here are some common verbs where that can be safely dropped without losing meaning:

• I think that we need a new computer.

  
  

  • I think we need a new computer.

    
    

• He said that he was on his way.

  
  

  • He said he was on his way.

    
    

• She knows that it’s going to rain.

  
  

  • She knows it’s going to rain.

It’s like cutting the "ums" from a speech - you don’t miss them until you see how clean things are without them.

The “That” Test

When editing, try this simple trick:

• Read the sentence aloud and omit the that.

• If it still sounds natural and makes sense? Cut it.

• If the sentence stumbles or becomes unclear? Leave it.

Rick's Commentary

The beauty of strong writing lies in rhythm and clarity.

If your sentences trip over unnecessary words, your readers will too.

So, be kind to your prose.

Trim the excess that’s.

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