How Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement Can Make One's Essay Better
Nov 29, 2021
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If students get a comment from their teacher that their pronouns and antecedents don't agree and they don't understand what that means, how can they fix it?
Human beings usually learn how to speak long before they learn to write. Most of the time, they innately understand how to put sentences together so that they make sense. They usually don't have to give much thought to grammar or punctuation when they speak.
Everything changes when a person puts a pen to paper, however. In the English language, sometimes people speak colloquially, but it doesn't translate very well to essay writers as they should have deeper knowledge and skills. One of the things that people do when speaking is unintentionally create disagreement between the pronouns and antecedents they are using.
So what's a student to do if he doesn't understand what pronoun-antecedent agreement is? Read on.
What Is an Antecedent?
To determine what an antecedent is, the pronoun must be identified first. Remember, a pronoun is simply a "substitute" for a noun; it is used instead of the noun itself. So, for example, if a person writes, "Paris is a beautiful city, but it wouldn't be the same without the Eiffel Tower," the word "Paris" is a noun, and "it" is a pronoun. It's not difficult for a reader to understand that "it" is a substitute for "Paris."
Simply put, the original noun is what is referred to as the "antecedent." It is the original word for which the pronoun is substituting. So if an instructor tells a student that she needs pronoun-antecedent agreement, it has to do with the pronoun not agreeing with the original noun.
How Can a Student Ensure Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement?
Sometimes it's difficult for a student to exchange his "spoken hat" with his "writing hat," because pronoun-antecedent disagreement occurs fairly often in colloquial speech. However, once the student knows the problems to look for, he can correct them in his essays.
One of the most common forms of disagreement occurs with indefinite pronouns (words like everybody or someone). Many times students will refer to a singular noun (the antecedent) as a plural pronoun, which is incorrect.
For example, this sentence does not have a pronoun-antecedent agreement: "When someone asks you what time it is, they usually have an idea already." The word "someone" is singular, but the pronoun "they" is plural, so the two do not agree. There are at least two possible ways to correct this problem:
- Make the antecedent plural: When people ask you what time it is, they usually have an idea already.
- Or make the pronoun singular: When someone asks what time it is, he usually has an idea already.
Part of the reason why students make this common mistake is that they tend to want to keep discrimination out of their essays; by referring only to "one" as "he," they feel they are being anti-feminist (with good reason). To avoid that dilemma, students can ask someone to write my essay or to an indefinite singular pronoun as "he or she". However, the problem there is that constant repetition of "he or she" throughout an essay can be distracting. It is perfectly acceptable today to instead alternate, referring to "one" as "she" in one paragraph or context and "he" in the next. Another way to avoid this problem is to keep all pronouns plural, thereby ensuring that pronouns will not refer to a singular (engendered) person. However, it is not acceptable to refer to a singular noun with a plural pronoun.
Make Essays Better by Paying Attention to Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
A student has multiple concerns when writing an essay, from preparing an attention-grabbing introduction to conducting proper research and writing strong paragraphs, but students must learn from their mistakes if they want to get excellent grades on their essays. One way to improve one's writing is to pay attention to pronoun-antecedent agreement. If nouns and pronouns agree, instructors will be able to pay more attention to the student's words, rather than being distracted by her errors.