Local Revision : Pronoun Usage

Pronouns are often seen as a way to speed up the writing process and make identifying something easier than it otherwise would. However there are instances where the usage of pronouns may in fact confuse the reader because they are improperly used. In this blog I will analyze the usage of pronouns in my QRG.

My pronoun usage in project 1 was limited. I did not use many pronouns at all, in fact the most frequently used pronouns were "it and they" which usually referred to the pipeline and different stakeholders respectively. However there was another type of pronoun that was used quite a lot, and that is the possessive pronoun, a type of pronoun used to show "ownership" of something. Usually this was used in reference to owning an idea or a side of an argument. Overall I think the amount of pronoun usage is just the right amount for a QRG talking about a controversy that involves corporations fighting against huge groups of people. In this instance some pronouns may be used but it is better to be more specific in identifying the subject than to use a pronoun and risk a viewpoint getting misinterpreted.

There are not any blatant instances where I talk to the audience as I am just intending to convey the facts about the controversy and not ask the audience to think about the controversy; although with that being said, the underlying goal of the QRG is to give the audience a full interpretation of what is going on in this controversy so that they can make their own well informed opinion about the controversy. However there are some instances where I do talk in semi-rhetorical situations where I want to try to get the audience to ponder the situation and who has the most to lose. These instances are intended to get the audience engaged and get them thinking about the controversy. Since I do not directly intentionally talk at the audience, which I think would be appropriate for this genre type since it is merely meant to quickly inform the reader about an issue, I need to clarify that the audience is not left out of the writing. Some sentences are written with the intentional purpose of getting the reader to think about the controversy and mull over the situation in their head. In the end, my goal as the author is to get the audience to end the QRG thinking about their own personal opinion of the controversy, per se what side of the argument they would like to take. I tried to do this without directly asking the audience this and without them knowing that that is my main goal behind the QRG.

Gerault, "Thinking", via Pixabay, CCO Licence