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Grammar SOS > Agreement
Match subjects and pronouns:
- If you are writing about "someone," then pronoun references are "he or she," "himself or herself."
If you don't like this wordiness, make the subject plural in some manner:
- "A student needs to have his or her registration slip filled out in advance."
- OR "Students need their registration slips filled out in advance."
Clubs, groups and other entities are "it" or "its" instead of "they" or "them."
- The club met with only four of its members present.
Sometimes, you can refer to too many people in a sentence, trying to use pronouns. This may be confusing. It may be better to create two sentences instead, for clarity.
- He thought the president's speech relied too much on his own opinions and ideas instead of using the principles listed in his guidebook.
- He said the president's speech relied on his own ideas instead of using the principles listed in Smith's guidebook.
Beware of attributing information to "they." We often see sentences such as this:
- The Tone Deaf Band announced the winner of the Best Dancer 2000 contest last week. They said that Squiggley Smith showed the best moves they had ever seen.
- The band is an "it." While a band cannot talk (and be quoted), its members can. Note that working this through helps clarity and conciseness as well as clears up any confusion:
- Squiggley Smith won the Tone Deaf Band Best Dancer 2000 contest last week.
- "He showed the best moves some of us had ever seen," said band member Awkward Allison.
They or You or We?
It rarely is a good idea to use "you." There are exceptions, of course: How-to columns or articles, casual feature or magazine writing, reviews. However, this is dangerous and sometimes awkward. You must attribute most of the information when you target "you" and this leads to bulky sentences.
Whatever you decide, do not switch from, say, the third person to "you" in an article.
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