Dear Readers,

The post which follows has to do with one of my passions–correcting my own grammar (and the grammar of my students).  Those of us who trust our inner guidance tend to take our passion to the hilt.  

Grammar geeks, please feel free to enjoy & then comment on the following:
 
Many of my students are questioning me about the use and omission of the word “that,” and I have been on a quest to find the truth.  My initial reaction was to say, “I challenge you to make it through the day without using THAT word.” 
 
Then I searched several grammar books in our school library.  The only writing I could find was on the use of “that” versus “which,” so this was insufficient.
 
So, I asked my mother, who obtained her degree in English.  She said that she’d not heard of such a rule. 
 
I then turned to my sister, a federally appointed judge who was selected as the Line Editor of her Law Review Journal at Bates College of Law.  She also had not heard of “that” omission.
 
I spoke with a college English instructor who was educated in England.  She she said “that” could sometimes create redundancy and could often be eliminated in academic writing, though complete elimination of the word would probably create problems for the reader.
 
I wondered whether the shift in “that” useage was a generational or regional phenomenon, as my professors at Rice did not teach me this writing rule.
 
Apparently, others appear to be discussing the use of the word “that”…and that is of interest to me, as it relates to this question.
 
The first article below (Columbia University) argues for keeping “that” and the second (Cambridge) argues for redefining the rules around “that”.  I also came across some blogs by grammar geeks.  These tended to come to the same conclusion:  keep “that” when it serves as the subject or object of the sentence,or when needed to promote clarity.  I noticed another which suggested omission of “that” when substituting it with a comma after an imperative.  For example, “Remember that blah blah blah,” could be changed to, “Remember, blah blah blah.”  However, it doesn’t appear to be widely accepted as convention, as far as I can determine. 
 
CJR : Resources : Language Corner
 
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=522092
This is from a grammar geek’s blog:

Theodore Bernstein lists three conditions in which we should maintain the conjunction that:

When a time element intervenes between the verb and the clause: “The boss said yesterday that production in this department was down fifty percent.” (Notice the position of “yesterday.”)
When the verb of the clause is long delayed: “Our annual report revealed that some losses sustained by this department in the third quarter of last year were worse than previously thought.” (Notice the distance between the subject “losses” and its verb, “were.”)
When a second that can clear up who said or did what: “The CEO said that Isabel’s department was slacking off and that production dropped precipitously in the fourth quarter.” (Did the CEO say that production dropped or was the drop a result of what he said about Isabel’s department? The second that makes the sentence clear.)

Do you have any sources on the matter?  I would like to get down to the bottom of this (and that!).
 
Would you agree that an indiscriminate omission could impair writing clarity?  I would really like to hear your opinion on this matter, as I’ve noticed an impairment in writing clarity when “that” is omitted indiscriminately.
 
Continue to follow your inner guidance!

Dr. Pam