As the academic year winds to a close, chances are You’re hammering away on final papers, anxious to make your point in a way That’s clear and concise. Pronoun shift hampers both those objectives, and It’s a sneaky error that may have crept into your academic writing without you noticing at all.
Pronouns
As a brief refresher, pronouns are words that stand in for nouns?words like we, you, I, and so on. There are several classes of pronouns, but for the purposes of this article I’ll focus on personal pronouns, particularly one, you, we, they, and I.
Shifty Pronouns
Pronoun shift occurs when one is writing to a certain audience, or about a certain situation, and then you shift the pronouns to cover other situations where we might not expect them to be an issue. Did you catch what I did there? Jumping from “one” to “you” to “we” in a single sentence is a particularly egregious example, but if You’re reviewing it quickly, it might slip through unnoticed.
Pronoun shift is very common, even among experienced writers, and there are times, like in certain types of informal writing, where you may wish to mix pronouns to make a point. But allowing them to creep into your formal or academic writing will take away from your assertions or analysis, or, at the very least, risk confusing the reader.
Example A: When one looks at the vastness of the prairie, at the boundless grassy fields, at the hazy edges of the blue dome overhead, and at the thin ribbon of road winding off into the horizon, you may feel overwhelmingly small.
In Example A above, the complexity of the sentence buries the pronoun shift, but It’s there. To improve the sentence, you can rework it so that the pronouns are consistent:
Example A (using “one”): When one looks at the vastness of the prairie, at the boundless grassy fields, at the hazy edges of the blue dome overhead, and at the thin ribbon of road winding off into the horizon, one may feel overwhelmingly small.
Example A (using “you”): When you look at the vastness of the prairie, at the boundless grassy fields, at the hazy edges of the blue dome overhead, and at the thin ribbon of road winding off into the horizon, you may feel overwhelmingly small.
You can also rework the sentence to include just one pronoun:
Example A (reworked): Looking at the vastness of the prairie, at the boundless grassy fields, at the hazy edges of the blue dome overhead, and at the thin ribbon of road winding off into the horizon, one may feel overwhelmingly small.
The Singular They
Sometimes pronoun shift sneaks into your work when You’re trying to find a gender-neutral singular personal pronoun. One is a choice, of course, but working with it can create awkward or stilted sentences. Ditto constructs like he/she, s/he, or alternating he and she?and they only account for binary genders.
One of the biggest recognized style changes in 2015 was a much wider general acceptance of the so-called singular they, or they used as a gender-neutral pronoun to cover third-person singular case. Know your audience, of course?there are still holdouts who refuse to accept this usage?but remember that in many cases, the singular they can be preferable to clunky workarounds.
Example B: A student may appeal to the academic dean if that student feels he/she has been subjected to grade deflation.
Example B (using the singular they): A student may appeal to the academic dean if that student feels they have been subjected to grade deflation.
Note here that It’s important to watch for any risk of ambiguity between the singular and the plural they; if I’d rewritten Example B as “A student may appeal to the academic dean if they feel they have been subjected to grade deflation,” it might have been unclear whether the initial “they” referred to just the student or to the student and the academic dean together. In the following sentence, though, there’s no such issue:
Example C: A student may appeal the decision if that student feels he/she has been subjected to grade deflation.
Example C (using the singular they): A student may appeal the decision if they feel they have been subjected to grade deflation.
Pronoun shift may not seem like a big issue, but it can lessen the professionalism of your voice?especially in the world of formal or academic writing. When You’re revising your term papers for the umpteenth time this spring, keep an eye out for shifty pronouns. Your reader?and your grader?will thank you.
Christina M. Frey is a book editor, literary coach, and lover of great writing. For more tips and techniques for your toolbox, follow her on Twitter (@turntopage2) or visit her blog.
