One thing constantly overlooked is pronoun antecedent agreement. This describes exactly what it is and how you should avoid that mistake in your writing.

1. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
Making 3rd person flow

2. What is a pronoun?
• The part of speech that
can take the place of a
noun in a sentence and
function as a noun.
• Jake is a good athlete. He
excels at football, soccer,
and baseball.

3. What is an antecedent?
• The word, phrase, or clause
referred to by a pronoun.
• If a pronoun does not refer
clearly to the word it substitutes
for (its antecedent), readers will
have difficulty grasping the
pronoun’s meaning.
• Jake is a good athlete, and he
excels at football, soccer, and
baseball.

4. Pronouns and antecedents
Pronoun and
antecedents
must
• Agree (in
number & kind)
• Be clear

5. Single Antecedent
• Emily Dickinson is sometimes
compared with Jane Austen,
but she was quite different.
Clear Revisions:
• Emily Dickinson is sometimes
compared with Jane Austen,
but Dickinson was quite
different.
• Despite occasional
comparison, Emily Dickinson
and Jane Austen were quite
different.

6. Close Antecedent
• Jody found a dress in the attic
that her aunt had worn.
Clear Revisions:
• In the attic Jody found a dress
that her aunt had worn.

7. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
• Homeowners fret over their tax
bills.
• For clarity, a pronoun should
always agree with its
antecedent in person (first,
second, third), number
(singular, plural), and gender
(masculine, feminine, neuter).

8. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
• The instructor and the sergeant
have offered their help.
• Note: When each or every
precedes the compound
antecedent, the pronoun is
singular.
• Every boy and man took his
seat.

9. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
• Everyone on the women’s team
now has her own locker.
• Each of the men has his own
locker.

10. Pronoun Antecedent Agreement
• Each athlete is entitled to his
own locker.
• All athletes are entitled to their
own lockers.
Or
• Each athlete is entitled to a
locker.

11. Where’s the problem?
• A reader may often not like
Faulkner’s “Barn Burning”
because the story confuses
them.
• Readers may often not like
Faulkner’s “Barn Burning”
because the story confuses
them.

12. Where’s the problem?
• An author’s cultural
background can play a large
part in their writing.
• An author’s cultural
background can play a large
part in her writing.

13. Take a look at this…
• Tan planned this trip, so she could
learn more about her mother,
such as where she had lived and
see her daughters she had left
behind.
• Tan planned this trip, so she could
learn more about her mother,
such as where she had lived and
see the daughters that she had
left behind.