Using Reduced Relative Clauses to Write Concisely

The building that is across from Robinson Hall A is the Fenwick Library.

The building across from Robinson Hall A is the Fenwick Library.

The two sentences above have completely identical meaning, but the number of words to express the same idea is different. Since academic writing is characterized by being concise and dense, reducing unnecessary words in sentences can help writers achieve this goal. This handout specifically addresses the reduction of relative clauses, an advanced grammatical structure commonly found in academic writing.

Background

The first sentence in the example above contains the relative clause that is across Robinson Hall A. How do we know that it is a relative clause? A relative clause starts with a relative pronoun (e.g. that, which, who, whose) and provides additional information about the noun it follows. In this case, the relative clause that begins with the pronoun that modifies the noun the building, specifying which building the writer refers to.

It is also important to remember that any clause should have a subject and a verb. Does that is across Robinson Hall A have a subject and a verb? It does: the relative pronoun that functions as a subject and is as a verb. When relative pronouns function as subjects of a clause, a relative clause can be reduced in two main ways:

Table adapted from Folse, K. S. (2009). Keys to teaching grammar to English language learners: A practical handbook. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 

Note: A relative pronoun does not always function as a subject. In the example The research that Smith conducted is controversial, that is not a subject because the verb conducted refers to Smith. When a relative pronoun is not a subject, the reduction rules presented above are not applicable.

It is possible, however, to omit that when it is not a subject sometimes (e.g. The research Smith conducted is controversial), but this omission is different from clause reduction.

Strategies

- To make your writing concise, look for relative pronouns in your paper and reduce relative clauses where possible. Note: not all clauses containing who/which/that are relative clauses, so make sure that a clause does modify a noun it precedes if you plan to reduce it.

- When creating a reduced relative clause, do not forget to omit both the relative pronoun and the verb be.

Practice

• This passage contains 8 reduced relative clauses. Underline them and identify how they were formed (see the example in the first sentence).
• In addition to reduced clauses, there are also 4 full relative clauses. Identify these full clauses and indicate how they can be reduced. Also, explain why one of these 4 full clauses cannot be reduced.

Two variables included in the IPUMS dataset (reduced clause; full form: which are included) are educational attainment, representing the current (or completed) level of education of every person in the household, and the variable indicating the number of people in each household. Those individuals who have no education information listed are excluded from the sample. In this analysis, the number of children born to a mother is used as a proxy for the number of siblings that a child has, and in this case the number of children born is interpreted as a measurement of a family size. It is important to note the assumptions arising from the use this measurement. In certain cases, some of those children born to a mother may no longer be alive, or some of these children may be half brothers or sisters that live in different households. Obviously, these absent children have no impact on the observed child’s educational attainment. Still, this variable attempts to capture some of the possible competition between siblings for the opportunity to go to school, if parents need one child to stay at home while they work. In additional specifications, the number of people per household is another measurement of a family size, although in some cases multiple generations may live in one household, or the household may contain people who are not directly related to children in the family. One additional model is run using this measure of family size.

Practice passage adapted from Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers. (2009). Ann Arbor, MI: The Regents of the University of Michigan.

Last updated 10/2/2017