CTRL+F Is My Editing Friend: THAT

I recently had a manuscript edited by a professional editor. When she returned my document, I noticed every THAT in the document had been highlighted.She suggested I review each instance I used the word to see if I could change it to another word or eliminate it completely.

She made a comment to the effect the latest trend among editors is they believe the word THAT should be eliminated from the English language. I think she still likes me even though I gave her my opinion. Trends come and go, probably at the whims of the editors from the big New York publishing houses. Several years ago, the "trend" revolved around whether to use THAT or WHICH, with THAT tending to be favored. If I don't like the trend, I'll just wait five years, and maybe it will change.

However, I did realize I really did use the word THAT an awful lot in my manuscript. Like many writers, I tend to overuse the word. I truly felt grateful she pointed it out to me. In fact, do you have any idea how many times so far while writing this blog post I typed the word THAT only to delete it and reword my sentence? More than a handful.

I am not ready to ban the word THAT from the English language or my writing. However, I have decided from now on I need to review each use of the word THAT in my manuscripts. Can I eliminate it, use another word instead, or reword the sentence completely to create a more effective sentence?

Figure 2

The easiest way to accomplish this is to use the <CTRL> plus F feature on the computer keyboard to bring up the Find and Replace box. If you have never used it, you can access it by holding down the CTRL key usually found at the bottom of your keyboard and at the same time pressing the letter F. When you do, you will bring up a little box that looks like this (figure 2)
:

figure 3

In the Find what: window, type the word that. Then click on the Find Next button. By doing so, the feature will take you from the point of your cursor in your document to the next instance that the word appears. You will note that it highlights the word in your Word document.

Need to cut a couple hundred words from your manuscript? Try using CTRL+F to find all the times you use the word THAT in your manuscript.

By going through your document in this manner, you can review each time you use the word THAT to see if you want it to stay as is, or if you want to make a change. The following is a section of rough draft from my current work in progress. (Oh, all right, I admit I salted it with a few more thats than I originally wrote.) But, by seeing how I originally wrote the sentence and reviewing some possible changes, it can give a writer an idea of how she or he might improve her/his writing style.

     She had lost everyone that was important to her in her life. Since the time that she had been little, she had heard how the War Between the States had been hard on the Parmley family. Her father, Jacob, had fought, caught up in that bloody conflict between Missouri and Kansas. Her older brother, Jacob Junior, called Jake, was a product of their parents still being together before he enlisted at the start of that war. Evidently, Papa had come on leave long enough for her to be conceived, although the war was over before he saw her at two years old. Then had come her little brother. Thinking back on her father's tendency for depression, Lulu realized that because of the war, in some ways, her father had left the family emotionally long before his life ended.

     First, her mother and younger brother had died while the family still lived back in Missouri. That had left her father with two small children to care for along with his failing farm. Eventually, the lure of gold and silver strikes plus the desire to leave behind everything that reminded him of the war had tempted him to sell his farm and take his two children west.

     She had lost everyone who had been important to her. Since the time she had been little, she had heard how the Ward Between the States had been hard on the Parmley family. Her father, Jacob, had fought, caught up in the bloody conflict between Missouri and Kansas. Her older brother, Jacob Junior, called Jake, had been a product of their parents still being together before their father's enlistment. Evidently, Papa had come home on leave long enough for her to be conceived, although the war had ended before he saw her at two years of age. Then had come her little brother. Thinking back on her father's tendency for depression, Lulu realized because of the war, in some ways her father had left the family emotionally long before his life ended.
     first, her mother and younger brother had died while the family still lived back in Missouri. The loss had left her father with two small children to care for along with his failing farm. Eventually, the lure of gold and silver strikes plus the desire to leave behind him everything reminding him of the war had tempted him to sell his farm and take his two children west.

My editor friend would be proud of me. Not one time did I use the word THAT when I rewrote those two paragraphs. But, be kind and keep in mind it is still a rough draft. Those words may be changed even more before I get this story ready to submit for publication.

Robyn Echols writes using the pen name, Zina Abbott. Her novel, Family Secrets, has been published by Fire Star Press and is now available on Amazon HERE and on Barnes & Nobel for Nook HERE. 

Also available from Prairie Rose Publications:

Big Meadows Valentine, on Amazon Kindle HERE and on Nook HERE . The second novella in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, A Resurrected Heart, is available on Amazon Kindle HERE and on Nook HERE.