34g Make pronouns refer to clear antecedents.

The antecedent of a pronoun is the word the pronoun substitutes for. If a pronoun is too far from its antecedent, readers will have trouble making the connection between the two.

Ambiguous antecedents

Readers have trouble when a pronoun can refer to more than one antecedent.

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What fell into the water—the car or the bridge? The revision makes the meaning clear.

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Reporting Kerry’s words directly, in quotation marks, eliminates the ambiguity.

Vague use of it, this, that, and which

The words it, this, that, and which often function as a shortcut for referring to something mentioned earlier. But such shortcuts can cause confusion. Like other pronouns, each must refer to a specific antecedent.

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Indefinite use of you, it, and they

In conversation, we frequently use you, it, and they in an indefinite sense in such expressions as you never know; in the paper, it said; and they say. In academic and professional writing, however, use you only to mean “you, the reader,” and they or it only to refer to a clear antecedent.

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Possessive antecedents

A possessive may suggest a noun antecedent but does not serve as a clear antecedent.

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