Robbery: You Usually Don't Need "That"

Every writing instructor has some sort of pet peeve. And that peeve isn't regarding something that is absolutely wrong, but something that is unneeded and intensely disliked by the individual.

This is the story of one such peeve.

In writing, "that" is one of the most wasteful words you can use. Quite often, you could remove it entirely and lose nothing in a sentence.

Like here:

He said that the man entered the store around 11 p.m.

Let's take "that" out and see what we have left:

He said the man entered the store around 11 p.m.

Any difference? Well, it's a word shorter. And that's it.