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Writer's Haven => Writer's Workshop [Public] => Topic started by: Tom Wood on May 12, 2019, 08:32:55 AM

Title: A 'that' versus 'which' question.
Post by: Tom Wood on May 12, 2019, 08:32:55 AM
Here are the sentences in question:

"The tops of the super high-rises of downtown scrape the clouds. The tallest of all is FEAR Tower. Bright red, it is capped by a hologram of flaming red letters that spells its name."

I'm told it should be "a hologram of flaming red letters which spells its name."

I've studied the Grammar Girl examples, and it seems to me that the sentence needs 'that' because it loses its meaning if "spells its name" is deleted.

ETA: Crowdsourced: https://twitter.com/agentsofdisrupt/status/1127343082846982144 (https://twitter.com/agentsofdisrupt/status/1127343082846982144)
Title: Re: A 'that' versus 'which' question.
Post by: Maggie Ann on May 12, 2019, 10:36:19 AM
Bright red, it is capped by a hologram of flaming red letters, spelling its name.

Title: Re: A 'that' versus 'which' question.
Post by: LilyBLily on May 12, 2019, 10:58:52 AM
"that" is correct. "which" would not be correct.

Imagine "which" is always after a comma and you're covering most cases.



Title: Re: A 'that' versus 'which' question.
Post by: Tom Wood on May 12, 2019, 11:00:28 AM
Bright red, it is capped by a hologram of flaming red letters, spelling its name.

The present participle is another can of worms. Since I'm writing in the cinematic present tense, the present participle can create a very different mood.
Title: Re: A 'that' versus 'which' question.
Post by: LilyBLily on May 12, 2019, 01:21:53 PM
Bright red, it is capped by a hologram of flaming red letters, spelling its name.

The present participle is another can of worms. Since I'm writing in the cinematic present tense, the present participle can create a very different mood.

Here your real issue is the interruption. Start with "Capped by..." and you suddenly notice you've used "red" twice. Not good.