Pronoun Problems

Pronouns replace another pronoun or noun called antecedents. For clarity in your writing, make the antecedents obvious. Place pronouns as close to their antecedents as possible.

Avoid sentences that offer two possible antecedents for a pronoun.

AMBIGUOUS: Jack told Carl that he acted ungratefully. (Does he refer to Jack or Carl?)

CLEAR: Jack said to Carl, “You acted ungratefully.”

CLEAR: Jack said to Carl, “I acted ungratefully.”

CLEAR: Jack confessed to Carl that He acted ungratefully.

Avoid references to remote antecedents.

REMOTE: The birds sang in the forest amid the thick undergrowth where a brook wound slowly in the valley. They possessed many colors.

CLEAR: The birds sang in the forest amid the thick undergrowth where a brook wound slowly in the valley. The birds possessed many colors. (Repeating the noun avoids the confusion.)

CLEAR: The birds, possessing many colors, sang in the forest… (This revision eliminates the remote reference by changing the second sentence of the example into a subordinate clause.)

Avoid the vague use of this, that, or which to refer to the general idea of a preceding clause or sentence.

Formal usage requires a pronoun to refer to a particular word in a sentence rather than to a complete phrase, clause, or sentence. Informal usage permits such general antecedents.

INFORMAL: He pounded my back. That annoyed me, and I objected strenuously. (That refers to the entire preceding sentence.)

FORMAL: He pounded my back. That action annoyed me, and I objected strenuously. (That refers specifically to the action – pounding.)

Eliminate a vague pronoun reference by:

1. recasting the sentence to eliminate the pronoun, or
2. supplying a specific antecedent for the pronoun.

Use pronouns that can logically substitute for an antecedent.

WEAK: Because we put the wire fence around the chicken yard, they cannot escape. (They cannot logically refer to chicken, which here functions as an adjective, not a noun.)

CLEAR: Because we put the wire fence around the chicken yard, the chickens cannot escape.

WEAK: Tom’s brother is an engineer, and this is the profession Tom wants to study. (This cannot logically refer to engineer.)

CLEAR: Tom’s brother is an engineer, and Tom wants to study engineering.