3. Writing Connection: The Rhetoric of Pronouns
3. Writing Connection: The Rhetoric of Pronouns
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1). Pronouns can be used to create paragraph coherence.
The Carmel is a lovely little river. It isn't very long but it has everything a river should have. It rises in the mountains, and tumbles down a while, runs through shallows, boulders, wanders lazily under sycamores, spills into pools where trout live, drops in against banks where crayfish live. In the winter it becomes a torrent, a mean little fierce river, and in the summer it is a place for children to wade in and for fishermen to wander it. "Frogs blink from its banks and the deep ferns grow beside it. (John Steinbeck, Cannery Row)
2). Pronouns can be chosen purposefully to show point of view in narration
1st person: I, we
2nd person: you
3rd person: s/he, it, they
Writing application: avoid shifting point of view
e.g., If one didn't do it the right way, you got in trouble.
3). Pronouns and delayed revelation (used to avoid a long subject and create suspense)
That is what Athenian education aimed at, to produce men who would be able to maintain a self-governed state because they were themselves self-governed, self-controlled, and self-reliant. (Edith Hamilton, The Ever-Present Past)
4). Pronouns can be purposefully selected to show distance and formality.
The choice of pronouns reflects the distance between the writer and the readers. The use of pronouns like I, me, you, we, and us pull the audience close.
A distance can be created with the use of the indefinite pronouns 'one' to address people in general.
Generally speaking, first (I, we) and second person pronouns (you) should be avoided in academic and technical writing.
5). Pronouns can cause comprehension difficulties if the antecedent is unclear.
" ... and even ... the patriotic archbishop of Canterbury found it advisable --"
"Found what?" said the Duck,
"Found it," the Mouse replied rather crossly; "of course you know what 'it' means."
"I know what 'it' means well enough, when I find a thing, " said the Duck' "it's generally a frog or a worm. The question is, what did the archbishop find?"
— Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
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