Business Writing Tips from The Writing Center
Pronoun Agreement and Reference
December 21, 2006
If you're clear on how to use
he/she and him/her in documents without creating awkward sentences,
you may not need to review our seven rules for
pronoun agreement and reference:
1. A pronoun must agree
with its antecedent
(the word a pronoun replaces) in number. If the
antecedent is singular, the pronoun must be singular; if the
antecedent is plural, the pronoun must be plural.
Examples:
An employee (singular) must do
his/her (singular) best to
schedule vacation days early.
Employees
(plural) must do their (plural) best to schedule vacation days early.
NOTE: Do not be misled by words or phrases that
come between the antecedent and its pronoun.
Example:
One (singular) of the managers
left his/her (singular) notes
behind.
NOTE: Do not use he/him
to refer to both men and women. If the inclusive use of he/she or his/her
sounds awkward, rewrite the sentence in the plural. Or you may be
able to omit using any pronoun.
Not: Each
employee (singular) should
submit his (singular) time card by Friday.
But: Each employee
(singular) should submit his/her (singular)
time card by Friday.
Or: Employees (plural)
should submit their (plural) time cards by Friday.
Or: Employees (plural)
should submit time cards by Friday.
Or: Submit time cards by Friday.
As you can see, using pronouns correctly depends
upon knowing whether they are singular or plural.
Next week we'll review rules for pronoun number.
To comment on this topic, visit our
Business Writing Tips Forum.
This edition was adapted from our
Business Grammar Program.
Previous editions
may be read at
http://www.uliveandlearn.com/newsletters/index.cfm.
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