IN English, the brief, concise, and unembellished sentence is preferable to the long and complex sentence that packs in so many ideas. In contrast, stronger, clearer, and more elegant writing can be achieved by judiciously combining sentences or by adding modifying clauses to them. In the two examples above that use "who" and "that" as combiners, the added clauses are restrictive clauses; they are necessary to the meaning of the combined sentences. In some combined sentences, however, the added clauses are non-restrictive clauses; they are not absolutely necessary to what is meant but merely give additional information. Read this essay and listen to its voice recording in The Manila Times: "'Which,' 'that' and other grammar pitfalls"Next, Aug. 3, 2023: Rx for strays, danglers and squintersVisit Jose Carillo's English Forum, http://josecarilloforum.com.
