Readers tend to hate vague writing. Why read something when it’s impossible to figure out what the author means? I’m not talking about the seemingly incoherent ramblings of modernist literature–those authors have earned the right to be eccentric. I’m talking about vague and ambiguous pronouns, a pesky error you’ll often find on SAT Writing questions. First, let’s look at a simple example of an ambiguous pronoun:

Jessica met with Susie after she had lunch.

You might read this sentence and automatically correct the pronoun ambiguity. For some reason, you might think that Jessica had the lunch. Some of you might think Susie had the lunch. The truth is, there is no way of knowing. The pronoun “she” is ambiguous because it has no clear antecedent: it can refer to either Jessica or Susie.

How do we fix this problem? Simple. Just replace the ambiguous pronoun with the noun it should refer to. Let’s say the author meant for “she” to refer to Jessica:

Jessica met with Susie after Jessica had lunch.

If you want to exercise your writing skills a bit, you might make it a bit more elegant by cutting back on these clunky nouns:

After having lunch, Jessica met with Susie.

That was a simple example. There was no reason why “she” would refer to either Jessica or Susie. What if the pronoun isn’t so obviously ambiguous? What if there seems to be a logical antecedent even though the pronoun is grammatically ambiguous? Check out this example:

John gave his little brother a toy for Christmas that he played with constantly.

Wouldn’t it make sense that “he” refers to the little brother? The toy is his gift, after all. So, “he” must refer to the little brother, right? Well, not exactly. Though it makes sense that the little brother played with the gift he received, it is possible that John is just a selfish older brother. Perhaps, after having given the gift, John realizes just how awesome the toy really is, so he hogs it. Notice that, by trying to figure out the correct antecedent of “he,” I’ve wasted a lot of time and energy. We should not have to speculate on the correct antecedent of a pronoun, nor should e have to make up ridiculous stories to justify our choice. In this sentence, “he” is ambiguous. Period. Here’s a possible fix:

John’s little brother constantly played with the toy that John gave him for Christmas.

Now that we’ve looked at ambiguous pronouns, let’s check out vague pronouns. Unlike ambiguous pronouns, which refer to one of two or more pronouns in a sentence, vague pronouns do not have identifiable antecedents in the sentence. Rather, the antecedent of a vague pronoun is implied, but not stated:

They say that a bad cough, if left untreated, can have a detrimental effect on lung function.

While you won’t raise any eyebrows for using this vague pronoun in everyday speech, the SAT will deem it a grammatical error. When we use the construction “they say,” we don’t really have an antecedent in mind for “they.” We mean to imply that the thing “they say” is common knowledge, or that we’ve heard it somewhere but cannot identify who said it. For the SAT, though, this construction is wrong. To improve it, find a logical antecedent for “they” and replace the pronoun:

Doctors say that a bad cough, if left untreated, can have a detrimental effect on lung function.

or

Experts say that a bad cough, if left untreated, can have a detrimental effect on lung function.

The strategy for catching ambiguous and vague pronouns is simple: every time you see a pronoun, identify its antecedent. If you are stuck between two pronouns, or if you cannot find the logical antecedent in the sentence, then you must fix or identify the problem.

Unlike identifying sentence errors where the mistake is generally grammatical (think: subject-verb agreement, appropriate pronoun choice etc), improving sentences questions have errors that involve the structure of the whole sentence.  A common mistake in the sentence is modifier placement.  A modifier is a word or group of words that provides more information about the noun or verb in the rest of the sentence.  Usually, it’s placed right next to the word it is meant to modify.

E.g. A customer who was caught stealing was thrown out of the store by the security guard.

In this sentence, the modifying phrase is “who was caught stealing” and it is placed right next to the noun it is meant to modify – the customer.  If it was placed anywhere else, for example, “A customer was thrown out of the store by the security guard who was caught stealing”, you might be led to think that it was the security guard who stole something, not the customer.

The use of words such as “that”, “which”, “who”, “whom” at a start of a phrase usually indicate that its a modifying phrase and you should try and keep it as close as possible to the word it is modifying.  Sometimes, modifying phrases don’t use such words to let you know that it is the modifier.  For example,

John and Judy sat discussing the music in the cafe.

Jake told me he went fishing at the store.

The sculptor created a statue filled with inspiration.

The above sentences can be ambiguous.  In the first statement about John and Judy, are they discussing the music played at the cafe or are they sitting down at a cafe discussing some type of unknown music?  In the second statement, is John fishing at the store?  Or is he telling me that he went fishing while we were at the store?  In the last statement, is the statue filled with inspiration or was the sculptor filled with inspiration when he molded the statue.  Clearly, if I rephrased the above sentences into the format below, I would convey my intended meaning a lot more effectively.

John and Judy sat in the cafe, discussing the music.  OR  Sitting in the cafe, John and Judy discussed the music.

Jake told me at the store that he went fishing.  OR  At the store, Jake told me he went fishing.

Filled with inspiration, the sculptor created a statue.  OR  The sculptor, who was filled with inspiration, created a statue.

Let’s try to do a question from Grockit .

Forgetting its importance, history is a subject most students neglect.

A. Forgetting its importance, history is a subject most students neglect.

B. History is neglected by most students because of their forgetting its importance.

C. Most students, forgetting the value of history, and neglecting it.

D. Most students neglect history because they forget its importance.

E. A subject neglected by most students forgetting its importance is history.

The modifier here is “forgetting its importance” and the current phrasing in the question suggests that history itself forgets its importance.  To be correct, it is the students who forget.  This rules out choice A.  Choice B is also out because “because of their forgetting” is wordy and awkward.  Choice C has no verb; it uses two -ing words (gerunds), and would be correct if it said “Most students, forgetting the value of history, neglect it”.  Choice D is grammatical and to the point.  Choice E is in the passive voice and since there is a direct sentence in Choice D, that would be the best answer.

I hope you understand modifiers a little more.  When in doubt, try to misinterpret the meaning of the question.  If the structure is ambiguous and lets you do so, then you know that something is wrong with the placement of the modifier.  The following is an exchange between two characters in the movie Mary Poppins.  Can you spot the misplaced modifier?

“I once knew a man with a wooden leg named Smith.”

“What’s the name of his other leg?”