darren
November 7, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I guess it really comes down to who’s doing the prescribing (when it comes to “that” and “which”). I have had professors who were adamant that we follow the traditional rule (or “myth”), so in some cases preference had nothing to do with my choices. I like the AP stylebook rule cited above; in today’s media-driven society, who better to make prescriptions than those who do most of the writing that average people read day-to-day?
As for what I do when I’m not paying attention, I think that generally I follow the “mythical” convention. I tend, however, to use “which” even in restrictive clauses when its antecedent [is that the right word?] is plural. This is not always the case, and I have no idea why it pops up sometimes and not others. That’s why I really like the idea of using “which” in a restrictive clause only when “that” has been used in the same way in the same sentence. Will I do it? Probably not
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2 Comments.
Michael
October 31, 2007 at 8:24 am
Yay! Kick ass, Mrs. Chili!
I’m glad you have a good group, too. It’s so much nicer when you don’t have the *challenging* students to deal with. I hope they will continue to feed off your enthusiasm and you theirs!
Enjoy your IKEA trip…
~M
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14 Comments.
mrschili
October 25, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Ooh. I feel a little on the defensive here.
While I appreciate what you’re both saying, I didn’t have any particular problem with putting the message on semi-public space. While tolerance and equal rights ARE part of my personal politics, I’m also organizing an on-campus group that is working on having a very visible and vocal presence on that campus. It wasn’t inappropriate for me to put that message in classrooms for a couple of reasons: first, no one “owns” a classroom – we share them and move among them from class to class and term to term – so I wasn’t defacing “his” property any more than he would have been interfering in “mine” if he’d put a math club meeting announcement on the board of the room I was using (which I wouldn’t have erased, by the way). Second, the environment on TCC’s campus isn’t exactly friendly to queer kids, and I think it’s important for students – both queer and not – to know that (finally) there’s an on-campus resource and presence for them.
How would (would?) my putting the message on the board be any different than my tacking a poster to the wall (which, by the way, I would have done had I had any time to go to the print center)?
I didn’t incite my students to do anything – they came up with the idea on their own – I just didn’t discourage them from doing it. And I don’t really think that anything was done behind anyone’s back; as I said, the message wasn’t FOR the teacher, it was for the students.
The reason I was fuming was that I was hoping that the things I’d heard about this teacher were misinterpreted, if not outright wrong. He makes queer people uncomfortable in his presence (I know; they’ve told me) and I thought that his students in particular would benefit from the message I was trying to deliver.
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