How Isolated Pronouns Create More Work for Readers

Effective writing clearly guides readers from one concept to the next. But when the guidance is not clear, readers will slow down—and even backtrack—to try to understand the content.

One way that writers force readers to backtrack is by using isolated pronouns (eg, this, that, these, those, it) as the subject of sentences. When isolated pronouns are placed at the beginning of a sentence without a clear subject (ie, referent), readers must either reread the previous sentence or carry the cognitive load of the previous sentence into the next sentence. In either case, the reader must do more work, breaking the number one principle of making the reader’s job easy.

Fortunately, you can quickly fix these sentences by pairing the pronoun with a concrete subject or referent. This pairing will create an explicit statement to ensure that your writing is clear.

Example 1

Avoid: This suggests that age is associated with a higher incidence of type 2 diabetes. 

Preferred: This finding suggests that age is associated with a higher incidence of type 2 diabetes. 

Example 2

Avoid: These suggest that health education and preventive interventions may improve screening and early diagnosis of heart disease. 

Preferred: These data suggest that health education and preventive interventions may improve screening and early diagnosis of heart disease.

Example 3

Avoid: We found that a greater proportion of adults older than 75 years had a stroke. This supports that older age is associated with a higher incidence of stroke.

Preferred: We found that a greater proportion of adults older than 75 years had a stroke. This finding supports that older age is associated with a higher incidence of stroke.