How do you solve vague pronouns?

Answer 1

You rewite the sentence so that only one antecedent precedes the pronoun, or change it to eliminate the dichotomy.

Example:

Bill went with John to his father's store. (vague)

Bill went to his father's store with John.

Bill and John went to the store owned by Bill's father.

Answer 2

Vague pronouns become a problem when multiple sentences contain pronouns, or when there is pronoun confusion within a sentence.

Multiple sentences

Example of all pronouns: (Who is doing the actions in each sentence? Can you tell?)

He gave her his lunch. She thought he was nice and told her friends. One friend thought he was sweet to give her his lunch. She told her other friends.

Corrected for vague pronouns:

John gave Sally his lunch. She thought John was nice and told her friends. One friend, Cindy, thought John was sweet to give Sally his lunch. Cindy told her other friends.

An example of pronoun confusion also exists in the above example, where it says: One friend thought he was sweet to give her his lunch. She told her other friends. -- You can't tell WHO is meant by 'her' and by 'she', but when you put names in appropriate places, there is no pronoun confusion.

Single sentence

Vague pronouns can also be a problem in single sentences with more than one noun to which the pronoun could apply. You can rewite the sentence several ways.

Example:

Bill went with John to his father's store. (vague)

Bill went to his father's store with John.

Bill and John went to the store owned by Bill's father.

Answer 3

A vague pronoun reference can be eliminated by rewording the sentence.

Example:

Jane and her friend Joan visited her grandmother. (Whose grandmother is it, Jane's or Joan's?)

Reworded:

Jane visited her grandmother with her friend Joan.