Pronoun Usage

A pronoun (e.g., he, she, it, they) is a word used in the place of a noun, which is used to represent people, things, and ideas. In writing, readers often become confused when a pronoun is used without a clear indication of what noun it is replacing (the antecedent). Make sure it is clear to whom or what your pronoun is referring.

Examples:

• Incorrect: 
  • The red team was losing to the blue team, but they had a lot of injured players. [Which team had a lot of injured players? It is unclear because the pronoun ‘they’ is supposed to refer to the noun that immediately precedes it, but it also matches the other noun in the sentence.]
• Correct A: 
  • The blue team was winning against the red team, but the red team had a lot of injured players.
• Correct B:
  • The red team had many injured players and was losing against the blue team.

APA now recommends the use of ‘they’ to refer to individuals in the interest of non-gendered writing, i.e., if you do not know the gender of the subject or are referring to people in general.

• Correct:
  • When the teacher went to buy some supplies, they used their credit card. [Gender unknown.]
• Correct:
  • When the teacher, Ms. Lee, went to buy some supplies, she used her credit card. [If the gender is known, use the appropriate pronoun. In this case the teacher is a female.]