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I have two sentences:

  1. data suffers from some artefacts.
  2. this step is needed to reduce effect due to artefacts.

I'm struggling to choose the proper clause. In this case, would from which be suitable or not?

this step is needed to reduce effect due to artefacts from which the data suffers.

What is the rule of thumb for selecting a proper clause?

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    As trite as it may seem, choose one that is as simple and straightforward as possible and says what you mean. This step reduces the effects of the data artifacts. OR This step reduces the data artifact effects
    – Jim
    Sep 18, 2013 at 4:45
  • I would prefer "This step is needed to reduce effects due to artifacts the data suffers from." You can also say "due to the artifacts from which the data suffers", but this is awkward, IMO.
    – David Schwartz
    Sep 18, 2013 at 6:24
  • What Jim said. Writing shorter, but easier to understand sentences is always preferable to writing longer, but more difficult to understand ones.
    – Matt
    Sep 18, 2013 at 21:21

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You could clean up the original sentence with "for which" in the question to make it perfectly grammatical, but I think I'd recommend the sentence below for clarity. Jim and David's suggestions are also possible.

This step is needed to reduce the effect of the artifacts the data suffers from.

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I agree that the simpler it is, the better.

To answer your question, your guess is correct, but awkward. The less correct, more natural way would be "which the data suffers from."

You can also take out "which" and simplify further, as per MonkeyPushButton's example.

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