Science, Technology and Engineering

Language and Academic Skills

Pronouns in scientific writing

What is a pronoun?

Pronouns are words that stand for other words. Some commonly used pronouns are: she, I, me, you, we, us, that, this, them, which, it

In scientific writing it is a convention that personal pronouns (I, we, us, my etc.) are rarely used.

What is their function?

Pronouns help us to avoid repetition in writing and, if used clearly, they can unify writing because they refer to something that has already been mentioned.

Look at the following sentence:

The rainfall was unexpectedly high in September, and this helped to explain the increased crop growth.

The word 'this' stands for the whole string of words that explain that the rainfall was unexpectedly high in September.

Problems with pronouns

Pronouns used loosely can confuse the reader and create ambiguities.

Look at the following sentence:

The experimenters placed the mice in cages. They then ate freely.

There is an ambiguity here as it is not clear whether the pronoun they is referring to the experimenters or the mice. This is a very common mistake in student writing.

Some solutions

• Avoid starting a paragraph with a pronoun as your reader will have to go back to the previous paragraph to find what you are referring to
• If in doubt use both the pronoun and an identifying word: instead of writing “This shows” & … write “This finding shows” … or “These results show” …