36 Pronouns in College-level Writing

Don’t worry, this is not a grammar lesson!

In fact, it’s still a writing style lesson because it won’t discuss correct grammar. Instead, we’ll be looking at how to practice good manners when it comes to pronouns. For writers who are new to the standards of academic writing, pronouns can often be a problem. For example, which of the following sentences is BEST? (I’ve highlighted the pronouns so they stand out.)

All four are grammatically correct, but which one is the best for an academic essay? We can rule out number three immediately. Not all marines are male, so this sentence displays a gender bias that we want to avoid. Number four isn’t great either. The clunky double pronoun takes too long to write and say.

That leaves numbers one and two. Both are acceptable in academic writing, but I prefer sentence two. It uses the plural “Marines” with the plural “they.” Sentence one uses “they” as a gender neutral pronoun, which is gaining acceptance, but some readers may still find it confusing. (And some professors may still regard it as incorrect.)

What about this example? It uses the pronoun “I.” How could we improve it?

Again, grammar’s not the problem here. But the problem is with the phrase “In my opinion, I think . . . ” That’s too wordy and it says what we already know: that the writer can think and has opinions. You don’t need to tell your readers that, so an improved (and more direct) sentence will say:

One last example!

What could we do to improve this sentence?

Here we have the touchy second-person pronoun you. In academic writing, it’s best to avoid this pronoun altogether. Why? It shifts the subject of the sentence to the reader, which usually pulls the paper off-topic. Plus, it assumes that the reader is a smoker! And there’s no way of knowing that!!

It’s far better to stick to third person:

Here’s a slide presentation that may be helpful.

(Link for offline viewers: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vRbOm0RYKXF-CM7mY3s4toQ1WrJbAMGiz5NwFQ1TlfHGUh0WtbnX5yzZzs2UXpLZw/embed?)

Watch this video for even more help.

(The following video is from the Walden University writing center.)

(Link for offline readers: https://www.youtube.com/embed/K2Q0Z668IOs.)