Page 128 - English for Writing Research Papers

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6.11 Clarifying which noun you are referring to: which, that
and who
Which, that and who should only refer to the noun that immediately precedes them.

S1. *A group of patients was compiled using this procedure, as proposed by Smith and Jones
[2010], who had died under surgery.

An initial reading of S1 gives the impression that Smith and Jones died under sur-
gery! This ambiguity arises because the subject ( patients ) has been separated from
its verb ( had died ) by a subordinate clause ( as proposed … ). The solution is to keep
the subject and verb as close as possible to each other.

S2. A group of patients who had died under surgery was compiled using this procedure, as
proposed by Smith and Jones [2010] .

Here is a similar example (S3), which is less dramatic and less open to ambiguity
but could be rewritten more clearly (S4):

S3. Each scheduling service is characterized by a mandatory set of QoS parameters, as
reported in Table 1, which describes the guarantees of the applications.
S4. Each scheduling service is characterized by a mandatory set of QoS parameters, as
reported in Table 1. This set describes the guarantees of the applications.

In this case, the solution (S4) is to split the sentence in two and repeat the key word ( set ).

6.12 -ing form vs that

Authors sometimes use the -ing form in what is effectively a relative clause (i.e. a
clause that begins with that, which or who – see Sect. 6.10 ). This usage is acceptable
in phrases such as:
S1. Those students wishing to participate in the call for papers should contact …
S2. The professor giving the keynote speech at the conference is from Togo.

S1 could be rewritten as students that / who wish , and S2 the professor that / who is
giving . However, there is no possible ambiguity because the -ing form comes imme-
diately after the noun it refers to.