Practical Tips for Writers: Demonstrative Pronouns

As a follow-up to the summer series on writing, this post is the fourth and last (for now) in a series providing technical advice on issues that graduate students (and others) run into in the revision stage. I’ll address problems I commonly see in drafts of dissertations and theses. For each item covered in the series, it’s important to keep in mind the three guiding principles for writers: genre, process, and audience.

Genre: Most of the writing I work with follows APA or MLA style guidelines. Additionally, most of my writing students are at American institutions and follow those norms for writing. If your field requires a different style or if you are writing in a different academic context, always defer to that.

Process: In the first stages of writing, try to make each sentence perfect will only slow you down. The tips in this series are directed at the revision stage.

Audience: The goal of writing is for your argument to be clear to your reader. Conventions like punctuation and table construction help guide your reader smoothly through your argument. Sometimes, for clarity’s sake, you might choose to break a rule. That’s okay – these are conventions, not the first table of the Law. Just remember the goal, and make sure that when you depart from convention, it’s on purpose and for the right reason. (Laziness is rarely the right reason.)

A Helpful Introduction to Demonstrative Pronouns

(1) Many students, even ones who are experienced writers, struggle with demonstrative pronouns. (2) This may be because we all learned about demonstrative pronouns many years ago, perhaps in middle school or through videos like Schoolhouse Rock. (3) That can make it difficult to remember all the details. (4) We may have even forgotten what the demonstrative pronouns are. (5) Those are this, that, these, and those. (6) These can be a challenge to use correctly. (7) An important thing to remember is that “this” and “these” refer to things that are near, while “that” and “those” refer to things that are farther away. (8) These could be near or far either in physical distance or in conceptual distance. (9) That refers to an idea already mentioned in the paragraph, perhaps in the previous sentence. (10) This can really help writers as they consider how to use demonstrative pronouns.

Quiz

In sentence 2, “this” refers to: 

1. Students 
2. Pronouns
3. The struggle
4. Experienced writers

In sentence 6, “these” refers to: 

1. Those
2. “this” and “that”
3. “these” and “those” 
4. Demonstrative pronouns
5. All of the above 

In sentence 9, “that” refers to: 

1. The difference between types of demonstrative pronouns 
2. Physical and conceptual distance 
3. An idea already mentioned in the paragraph 
4. I have no idea

Get It?

You probably have gotten the point of this blog already. That point is to highlight the potential for confusion when using demonstrative pronouns (“this,” “that,” “these,” and “those” are the most common ones). These pronouns are “pointing” pronouns—they are always referring to something beyond themselves. It’s important to make sure you have made it clear to your reader what these pronouns are referring to. 

Demonstrative Pronouns in Real Life 

I have never read a thesis or dissertation that is as confusing as the first paragraph of this blog. Usually, rather than being utter, the confusion is momentary. Here is a more realistic example: 

The directors must be flexible and use effective change-management strategies so that they can respond to the needs of both the department and the front-office administrators. This can be extremely demanding for a director with little professional experience. 

The reader has to pause and ask what, exactly, is demanding – the strategies? The needs? The administrators? This pause breaks the reader’s concentration and requires refocusing, which is always a good excuse for your reader to abandon your paper and go do something else. To make the sentence more clear, simply add a word after “this” to show what the demonstrative pronoun is pointing to. Maybe This combination of duties or This role. 

And Now for Some Revision

And now, I’ll try to make my first paragraph more clear. 

Many students, even ones who are experienced writers, struggle with demonstrative pronouns. This struggle may be because we all learned about demonstrative pronouns many years ago, perhaps in middle school or through videos like Schoolhouse Rock. That time gap can make it difficult to remember all the details. We may have even forgotten what the demonstrative pronouns are. Those pronouns are this, that, these, and those. These words can be a challenge to use correctly. An important thing to remember is that “this” and “these” refer to things that are near, while “that” and “those” refer to things that are farther away. These referents could be near or far either in physical distance or in conceptual distance. That term refers to an idea already mentioned in the paragraph, maybe even in the previous sentence. This trick can really help writers as they consider how to use demonstrative pronouns. 

Happy writing! 

More Practical Tips for Writers from the Well-Ordered Blog

More Information