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What Does It Refer To?

Original Post - 14 Jun 2023 - Michael H. Scott

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Pick up any issue of your favorite engineering journal, or read a few news articles online, and you’ll come across passages that you have to re-read because the authors use a pronoun such as “it” with no clarity as to what “it” actually refers to.

For example, can you tell me what “it” refers to at the end of the following passage?

More than 2.5 million fewer people are buying widgets now compared to more than a decade ago, leading experts to think widget interest has potentially peaked. The emergence of a trend called the “the widget cliff,” which refers to how the number of people interested in buying widgets is dwindling, is also contributing to *it*.

Nouns changed and source withheld

Yeah, me neither. After many re-reads, I’m marginally confident “it” refers to the decline in widget interest.

Technical writing and reporting is hard work for the author, but the reader should not have to struggle to figure out your message. A lack of clarity leads to misunderstanding and misinterpretation.

Search for “it”, “them”, “this”, and other generic pronouns in your writing. Remove those pronouns if it’s not abundantly clear what they refer to.