<p>Is there ever a case where you would use "the reason is because..."?</p>
<p>i just came across a question in the BB like this</p>
<p>Because MEANS 'the reason for that is...' or more literally, 'the cause of that is...'</p>
<p>So, why would you say 'the reason is because'...? I'd say you shouldn't. It could count as redundancy.</p>
<p>yea, it definitely should be "the reason is that" </p>
<p>i just read about it in a packet of common grammatical errors i got for writing my college essay</p>
<p>Erm, it's <em>not</em> a grammatical error ... it's a diction choice. Grammar != the set of all regulations about language. Grammar is morphology, syntax, phonology and so forth ... </p>
<p>It's not redundant. Both "because" and "that" introduce new clauses. Having two ways to say the same thing is hardly unsatisfactory.</p>
<p>Professor Zwicky, who is a linguist at Stanford and also a writer for Language Log, (that includes UPenn phonetician Mark Liberman, and an array of other dazzling linguists) is</a> particularly critical of the idea that simply because something is redundant, it is necessarily wrong.</p>
<p>"simply because something is redundant, it is necessarily wrong."</p>
<p>So, that means it is wrong, isn't it? :p
At least on the SAT, it is.</p>
<p>Shrug.</p>
<p>Eh? I said that most linguists are critical of the idea that simply because something is redundant, it is necessarily wrong. ;)</p>
<p>A couple of SAT questions in the past have occasionally taken the heat from linguists. For a test that has a role in putting people into Ivies, I wonder why CB doesn't think of employing a few linguists of the same calibre. The type not to be deluded with "prescriptivist poppycock," as Zwicky puts it?</p>
<p>Criticizing SAT linguists = Admitting I was right about redundancy being an issue on the SAT. :p</p>
<p>OP - Just say 'the reason is that...' When in doubt, why take the risk?
However, if this was on the Writing section on the identifying sentence error questions, first look for a better choice in the sentence. Being wordy or redundant is more of an issue on the SAT Essay and the Writing Section changing sentence structure questions (the ones in which part of the sentence is underlined).</p>
<p>Being wordy is hardly the same as being redundant. ;) </p>
<p>But I really am unhappy with the situation because rather than appealing to the natural rules of language, the people at CB are appealing to the rules of prescriptivist poppycock.</p>
<p>A major alarm bell that you're about to receive prescriptivist poppycock is hearing something like, "almost everyone makes this error nowadays." </p>
<p>
[quote]
The American Heritage® Book of English Usage.
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English.</p>
<p>A traditional rule holds that the construction the reason is because is redundant, and should be avoided in favor of the reason is that. The usage is well established, however, and can be justified by analogy to sentences in which so that follows purpose, as in 'His purpose in calling her was so that she would be forewarned of the change in schedule.' A similar construction employs the conjunction 'when' after the noun 'time,' as in 'The last time I saw her was when she was leaving for college.'
[/quote]
</p>
<p>§</a> 24. reason is because. 2. Style. The American Heritage Book of English Usage. 1996</p>