[net.nlang] Singular/Plural space shuttle

decot@cwruecmp.UUCP (Dave Decot) (02/09/84)

    The space shuttle was one of the topics which were
    discussed in class this week.

is better because this sentence says that A was an element of set B,
where A = "the space shuttle", and B = "the topics which were discussed
in class this week."  B makes no sense as "the topics which was discussed
last week."

Certainly "that" is better than "which" here, but even better would be to
eliminate "which were" entirely.  OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS!

    The class discussed the space shuttle this week.

is better still, since it is active and does not disallow other topics.
Mentioning that there were other topics without describing them is
useless to the reader.

Dave Decot		 "Non-Americans are people, too."
decvax!cwruecmp!decot    (Decot.Case@rand-relay)