Pronoun Agreement & Reference
Issues with pronoun agreement and pronoun references are common struggles for many beginning writers, but these problems are easy to correct once you realize the issue and just pay close attention to the pronouns you're using in your writing.
Pronoun agreement errors occur when the pronoun you are using to “stand in” for a noun does not agree with that noun in number, place, or gender.
For example, using the singular pronoun she to stand in for a group of girls would not agree in number. Errors like this aren't usually an issue for most writers, but there is a pronoun agreement error that seems to give a lot of people trouble.
A common pronoun agreement error occurs when a writer uses a singular noun like student to represent students in general. Then, later, the writer may use they as a pronoun to replace student because the writer meant students in general.
For example, you may see something like this:
If a student really thinks about how much they are paying for college, they are likely to be more focused in class.
You have to be careful and be exact with your writing because this certainly creates an issue with pronoun agreement. You have options on how you can correct this error. You can change they to he or she or she or he, but most style guides recommend avoiding this construction. Instead, the best option would be to change the sentence, so it reads, If students really think . . .
Pronoun reference errors can also be problems for beginning writers because it's so easy to get in a hurry when you write and forget that you need to think about how clear your writing will be for your audience.
A common pronoun reference error occurs when students write about several different people or things and then use a pronoun later like she or it, but the audience has no idea what she or it refers to.
Here is a simple example to give you an idea about what a pronoun reference error looks like:
My mother and my aunt told me I should consider going to college, and she was right.
Here, the audience wouldn't be sure which person the writer is referring to. Is it the mother or the aunt?
You want to be careful with your writing and make sure you're clear and correct with your pronouns. Most of the time, slowing yourself down and working on some careful editing will reveal problems like these which can be easily corrected.