Edit yourself: Vague pronouns

ClearTips: Edit yourself

Vague pronouns

If this, that, these, and those are used not as adjectives, as in This book is..., but as pronouns, as in This is..., they often are vague. If there is any question, however fleeting, about what the pronoun refers to, restore the noun or create one.

Several countries have objected to recent decisions by the U.S. government to deplete its stockpile of tin. These will lodge a...	CHANGE TO	Several countries have objected to recent decisions by the U.S. government to deplete its stockpile of tin. These countries will lodge a...
The White House proposed an increase in aid to several Latin American countries. This has set off a barrage...	CHANGE TO	The White House proposed an increase in aid to several Latin American countries. This proposal has set off a barrage...

Note that such pronouns can stand alone if a verb separates them from what they stand for: This is the reason that..., These are times that....

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