this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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"which" vs "this" (beehaw.org)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Zagaroth@beehaw.org to c/writing@beehaw.org
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So, Grammarly is correcting me a lot on a phrase I tend to use, and I don't entirely understand the difference.

On a sentence that expands upon a previous sentence in dialog, I tend to have a character say "Which means [...]"

Grammarly wants to fix this to be "This means [...]"

It's become clear to me that I tend to use 'which' instead of 'this' when speaking, but I am not sure why one is preferred use over the other.

Can anyone offer me some insight? I already tried googling "which vs this", but I got results for "which vs that" instead, which is an entirely different use case.

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[–] pastorroshi@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Others have already talked about the grammatical rules a bit. I want to offer a “rule of thumb” that really helped me in my thesis writing:

Anytime you’re going to use “this,” especially at the start of a new sentence, rephrase what you’re saying.

For example:

My stomach is rumbling. This means I am hungry. My stomach is rumbling. Gastro-intestinal sounds mean I am hungry.

It’s a bad example, but it really does help.