Clear Reference

Read the following and summarize what it says. 1945: Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin take another meeting, this time at Yalta, an old czarist summer resort on the Black Sea. Victory over Germany and Japan is in sight, but how are the Allied Powers to deal with it? Likewise, with them? Roosevelt miscalculates, choosing to trust him too much, listen to him—a past master of keep-your-distance diplomacy—too little. Russia not only gets most of Eastern Europe, but also walks away with parts of it, too.

Check these out Anti-nuclear protesters released live cockroaches inside the White House Tuesday, and these were arrested when they left and blocked the security guard. My mother wants to have the dog’s tail operated on again, and if it doesn’t heal this time, she’ll have to be put away. About a year ago, a wart appeared on my right foot, and I want it removed. Guilt, bitterness, and cruelty can be emotionally destructive to you and your family. You must get rid of them.

Three rules to prevent confusion 1. Make a pronoun clearly refer to a single antecedent. 2. Place pronouns close to their antecedent. 3. Make a pronoun refer to a definite antecedent.

1. A pronoun should refer clearly to its antecedent

1) Ambiguous Reference Avoid an ambiguous reference, which occurs when any one of two or more words could be a pronoun’s antecedent. Mr. Kelly told Mr. Thelen that his essay on Marxist pitchers in baseball was too long. Who wrote the essay? How would you fix this?

2) General Reference Avoid a general reference, which is the use of a pronoun that refers to a general idea rather than to a specific antecedent. The guidance counselor asked me whether I wanted to take German, French, or Spanish, which was difficult to decide. What in the heck does ‘which’ refer? How would you rewrite this?

3) Weak Reference Avoid a weak reference, which occurs when a pronoun refers to an antecedent that has been suggested but not expressed. Every time the circus came to town, my sister Erin wanted to become one of them. Who is them? How would you rewrite this?

4) Indefinite Reference Avoid an indefinite reference, the use of a pronoun that refers to no particular person or thing and that is unnecessary to the meaning of a sentence. In the newspaper, it reported that a volcano had erupted in the Indian Ocean It is not necessary How would you rewrite?