*way which.
*”Way which” is erroneous for “way in which.” E.g.: “This column has as its main goal the empowerment of you, the reader, about ways which [read ‘ways in which’] you can become more informed and thereby take more responsibility for your own health.” Glenn Ellis, “Using Herbs as a Method of Preventive Medicine,” Phil. Trib., 14 Jan. 1997, at B8.
But it’s often quite natural and idiomatic to use “that” in place of “in which,” or even to omit the relative pronoun altogether. These phrasings are much more relaxed — e.g.:
o “Ways that they can help include volunteering to tutor.” Letter of Janie Moore, “Parents’ Help at Schools Is Good for Children,” Columbus Dispatch, 7 Nov. 1997, at A10.
o “Well, that’s the way they would do it in Mayberry.” Letter of Kathy Heath, Tampa Trib., 12 Sept. 1997, at 6.
Language-Change Index — *”way which” for “way in which”: Stage 1.
*Invariably inferior form.
For information about the Language-Change Index click
here.
——————–
Quotation of the Day: “The only way to keep the best writing in circulation, or to ‘make the best poetry popular,’ is by drastic separation of the best from a great mass of writing that has long been considered of value, that has overweighed all curricula, and that is to be blamed for the very pernicious current idea that a good book must be of necessity a dull one.” Ezra Pound, ABC of Reading 13 (1934).
====================
