PRONOUNS
As Melissa entered the door of the dimly lit Cathedral, Melissa held tightly to Melissa’s backpack. Suddenly, Melissa thought that Melissa saw a shadow moving. ‘‘This is scary,’’ whispered Melissa to Melissa.
What’s strange about the sentences in the above text? What is strange is that they’re missing pronouns, words that replace nouns in a sentence. You’ll probably agree that these next sentences are a vast improvement on the first version:
As Melissa entered the door of the dimly lit Cathedral, she held tightly to her backpack. Suddenly, she thought that she saw a shadow moving. ‘‘This is scary,’’ whispered Melissa to herself.
We may never find out what happens to Melissa, but replacing Melissa with pronouns like she and her makes her far more palatable.
As far as pronouns go, there’s bad news and there’s good news. The bad news is that there are a number of different kinds of pronouns. The good news is that there are only a few pronouns of each type. Look at the pronouns themselves and get a feel for the kinds of words they are. Some of the types may have long labels, but the pronouns themselves are usually short words.
