Vague pronouns confuse your reader by brian smith one of the worst things you can do as a writer is confuse your reader. They also consist of a personal pronoun plus self or selves. In one sentence, for example, the pronoun he might mean zippy the dog. Here are a few fun ideas for teaching pronouns in the. Number 173 teaching pronouns in the classroom by suzie hill, m. A vague pronoun is a pronoun for which its not clear which noun is its antecedent.
Multiple nouns in the sentence can confuse the reader, particularly. If an antecedent is singular, its pronoun must be singular, too. Exercise on vague or unclear pronoun reference with answer. If youre behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains. Help clarify the sentence by keeping or changing existing pronouns. Pdf two selfpaced readingtime experiments examined how ambiguous pronouns are. If the pronoun doesnt agree with its antecedent, the sentence may be unclear or even confusing to the reader. Learn vague pronoun reference with free interactive flashcards. Avoiding vague pronoun references macmillanmcgrawhill. Reflexive pronouns exercise myself i cut myself ourselves we did it ourselves yourself help yourself yourselves help yourselves. Improve your language arts knowledge with free questions in identify vague pronoun references and thousands of other language arts skills. Every one of the students has, have read the introduction to the book.
Person personal pronouns have different forms for first person, second person, and third person. Correcting vague pronouns lesson 6 curriculum ssociates llc coying is not ermitted 242 l6 correcting ague ronouns 1 a they showed skill in stone masonry to a high degree. Often, my feedback will say things like, make sure you listen carefully during todays lesson, you have a few paragraphs that feature vague pronouns. Vague pronouns connors writing center dimond library 329. Pronouns a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. Nondefining relative clause nondefining relative clauses are placed after nouns which are definite already. Case personal pronouns change their forms depending on how they are used in a sentence.
Ambiguous pronoun reference a pronoun with multiple, possible antecedents. Correcting vagueness carries postcard contains some vague pronoun references. No matter how simple this seems, getting students to understand and be able to apply this knowledge is not always so easy. Subjective case pronouns are used for the subject of a sentence or for the noun subject complement. Vague pronoun reference vague college of the mainland. Packet consists of an instructional page with examples, a guided practice activity, an independent practice activity, an extra help page. A sentence may be confusing and unclear ifa pronoun appears to. Avoiding vague and ambiguous pronoun references vocabulary antecedent the noun which a pronoun substitutes for or refers to. However, this can confuse the reader if it is not clear what the pronoun is standing in for. Indefinite pronouns this is the longest list of pronouns in english, many of the words can have many different grammatical functions singular. Pronouns allow writers to refer back to a noun without repeating it. Vague pronoun reference and pronounantecedent disagreement definition. Instead of saying graham went to the table and graham picked up the ruler.
Use a singular pronoun to refer to a singular indefinite pronoun. Student a then reads the sentence back to student b, adding in the correct object pronoun. Student a turns over their worksheet, so they cant see the sentences and answers. The pronoun it does not have a clear noun antecedent. Personal pronouns should not shift unnecessarily in point of view.
Using pronouns pronouns are words that replace nouns so that you dont need to repeat the same noun several times in a text e. End slide includes an activity to practice correcting sentences containing vague pronouns. As a result, the reader cannot know for sure whether kara sold the disk or the cabinet. If you need to retake todays quizzes, follow these instructions. This noun is called the pronouns antecedent unfortunately, it is very easy to create a sentence that uses a pronoun without a clear, unmistakable noun antecedent. Use the do now and your notes on todays powerpoint to help you.
That is, a pronoun is misused when the real noun to which it refers has not actually been mentioned. Such errors, called faulty or vague pronoun reference, can confuse readers and obscure the intended meaning. If a pronoun seems to refer to more than one antecedent, either reword the sentence to make the antecedent clear or eliminate the pronoun. See more ideas about pronoun activities, teaching language arts and this or that questions. Bll showed a high degree of skill a in stone masonry.
In these three sentences, the pronouns refer to the idea that harry was always late, but they cant logically refer back to either of the two nouns, harry or class. Vague pronouns 2 points pritzker freshman composition. A pronouns antecedent is the word to which the pronoun refers. In other words, you cant tell which word the pronoun is replacing. Graham went to the table and he picked up the ruler. Pronoun reference recognize pronoun reference when you see it. Each sentence below contains a vague pronoun reference a pronoun without a clear noun antecedent. The rule a pronoun must refer to a single noun, which acts as its antecedent. Vague pronouns confuse your reader incorrect pronoun. Harry was always late for class, and it drove his teacher crazy. In the table below, note the pronoun case subjective. Indefinite pronouns do not point to a specific person or thing. Once the drafts are passed back, i ask all students to secure a highlighter and highlight all pronouns.
This video is based on clarify vague pronoun references by joe moxley and licensed by a cc byncnd 3. Reflexive pronouns point back to a noun or pronoun and indicate the sentence subject receives the action of the verb. An expressed word or phrase that gives its meaning to a proform. One culprit of this problem is incorrect pronoun references. Revise the following sentences by eliminating the ambiguous pronoun reference.
Harry was always late for class, which drove his teacher crazy. Subject, indirect object, direct object, or object of a preposition. The highlighted words represent vague pronouns because a reader cannot tell which noun the pronoun is referring to in each example. A pronoun s antecedent is the word to which the pronoun refers. Choose from 147 different sets of vague pronoun reference flashcards on quizlet. It, this, and which are pronouns, and they need to refer back to a specific noun, not to the whole idea of a previous statement. Introduction pronouns help writers to avoid repetition, but when a pronoun is vague, or unclear, readers cant tell what or whom it refers to. This short packets helps students learn and practice common core standard l6. C high degree of skill in stone a masonry was shown by them. A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number, gender, and person. It contains an activity in which the language learners are asked to underline the best word possessives or object pronouns.
The cliff dwellings at mesa verde were built by the ancestral pueblo people. Vague pronoun reference a pronoun without a specific antecedent. Recognize variations from standard english in their own and others writing and speaking, and identify and use strategies to improve expression in conventional language. If youre seeing this message, it means were having trouble loading external resources on our website. My colleague who moved to italy three years ago and has his own apartment in milan he is making a lot of money. A pronoun is a word used to stand for or take the place of a noun a pronoun should refer clearly to one, clear, unmistakable noun coming before the pronoun.
The pronoun that corresponds with its antecedent in singular or plural, in. The students then test their partner on the object pronouns. Having to read a sentence multiple times to get your meaning will not only annoy himher but will perhaps cost you a few points if you. John mccain picked sarah palin as his running mate. In shakespeares history plays, he presents a tudor view of the. Just as a chameleon changes its color to coordinate with its environment, a pronoun alters. To repair the faulty pronoun reference this rephrase the sentence to eliminate the pronoun. We have used the pronoun he instead of the noun graham. A pronoun depends on a noun called the pronouns antecedent for meaning. Using pronouns correctly eliminates unnecessary noun repetition in your writing. The adjective clause which does not define the noun before it but gives additional information about the noun is called the nondefining relative clause. Pronoun agreement and vague pronouns flashcards quizlet. By definition, pronouns, which take the place of a noun, cannot refer to an idea expressed in an entire sentence or statement.
If you need to retake todays quiz, follow these instructions. The pronoun reference is faulty here because the pronoun it has two antecedents. Pronouns are words that take the place of common and proper nouns in a sentence. Then, on a separate sheet of paper, rewrite carries note to make it. Harry was always late for class, and this drove his teacher crazy. The computer started up but then it crashed because it is old not the computer started up but then the computer crashed because the computer is old. It cost sam and i, me fifty dollars to make that international call. These are pronouns that direct attention to a specific person, place, or thing. Personal pronouns, such as i, we, he, and them, change their forms to reflect person, number, and case. Better writing avoiding vague and ambiguous pronoun. Often they are used incorrectly and create faulty or vague pronoun reference problems. A pronoun may be unclear if there is more than one noun to which the pronoun could be referring. Exercise on vague or unclear pronoun reference in the following pairs of sentences, one sentence is correct, and the other sentence contains a vague or ambiguous pronoun reference. Pronouns a pronoun is a word that replaces a noun or noun phrase.
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