Pronoun Reference, Modifiers & Formal Style

Teaching points

• • Pronouns:
• • every pronoun needs a clear antecedent.
• • Modifiers:
• • introductory modifiers must describe the subject that follows.
• • Formal style:
• • Prefer precise words such as:
• • indicate
• • suggest
• • require
• • significant
• • approximately
• • Avoid:
• • kind of
• • pretty
• • stuff
• • really
• • vague or conversational wording

الضمائر: - يجب أن يكون مرجع كل ضمير واضحاً. المعدلات: - العبارة الافتتاحية يجب أن تصف الفاعل الذي يأتي بعدها. الأسلوب الرسمي: استخدم كلمات دقيقة مثل indicate و suggest و significant. تجنب الكلمات العامية وغير الدقيقة مثل kind of و stuff و pretty.

Examples

• • Ambiguous: When Ahmed called Omar, he said the schedule had changed.
• • Clear: Ahmed told Omar, "The schedule has changed."
• • Dangling: Walking through the laboratory, the equipment looked unusual.
• • Correct: Walking through the laboratory, the technician noticed unusual equipment.

Practice

Quick check — اختبار سريع

1. 1. Choose the most appropriate academic sentence. A. The results are pretty good and show the method works. B. The findings suggest that the method may be effective. C. Basically, the method really works. D. The results kind of prove the method.