Minutes a day n e w y o r k

Clear Up Confusing Pronoun References
Pronouns (words such as I, we, them, and her) take the place of nouns. They should only be used when the noun
to which they refer (known as the antecedent) is obvious and meaningful. Check the pronouns in your writing
to be certain they are not one of the following:
■
unclear
■
too far from the antecedent
■
useless
–
E D I T I N G
–
1 2 7
www.IELTS4U.blogfa.com

---

Example: Trini is interested in teaching and farming, which is her career choice.
What is her career choice? Which could mean either teaching or farming, making it unclear. The writer needs to
restate the career instead of using a pronoun in order to eliminate the possibility the reader will not understand
the sentence. Corrected: Trini is interested in teaching and farming, but farming is her career choice.
Example: They always talk about the dangers of global warming.
This common pronoun error is known as an expletive: They is useless, because it appears to refer to no one. If
the writer has that information, he or she can revise the sentence to be more precise: The newspaper frequently has
articles about the dangers of global warming. If there is truly no they, the sentence should be revised by eliminat-
ing it: There is much talk about the dangers of global warming.