Hopefully you know that when you are writing in Academic English exams (such as IELTS), you should use correct language. Today we are focusing on one aspect, not using pronouns in your work.
What are pronouns?
Subject
Pronoun
|
Object
Pronoun
|
Possessive
Adjectives
|
Possessive
Pronoun
|
Reflexive
Pronoun
|
I
|
me
|
my
|
mine
|
myself
|
You
|
you
|
your
|
yours
|
yourself
|
He
|
him
|
his
|
his
|
himself
|
She
|
her
|
her
|
hers
|
herself
|
It
|
it
|
its
|
(not used)
|
itself
|
We
|
us
|
our
|
ours
|
ourselves
|
You
|
you
|
your
|
yours
|
yourselves
|
They
|
them
|
their
|
theirs
|
themselves
|
They are words, which refer to someone or something that has been mentioned, or the people in the conversation.
In Academic English the ones that you should not be using are
Personal pronouns = I / you / we
Possessive pronouns = my / mine / his / her / hers
Your sentence may be correct using pronouns, but remember you should be trying for a formal, academic style, and that means finding alternatives to using pronouns.
You want to use them in your introduction?
It is very common to see them used in introductions.
“There are very strong arguments to be made in this area, as I will now explain.”
How can you fix this?
When you want to use a personal pronoun change it into a passive phrase.
“There are very strong arguments to be made in this area, as will now be explained.”
How can you give your opinion?
Another common error is when you start sentences with phrases like
“I think”
“I believe”
“I am of the opinion that”
“To some extent, I am in favour”
“I support the view that”
These phrases are grammatically correct, but they are not academic.
“It can be thought that”
“It could be believed that”
“The opinion that XXX is a strong one”
“A strong argument can be made that …”
“It is a good point that …”
How can you give an example without using a personal pronoun?
It is also a common mistake when you support your example with “my friend is a teacher, and he believes …”
It sounds much better if you make the phrase more general. Don’t talk about someone you know, focus generally on the type of people you want to use to support your point. “Teachers for example, often state that ...”
In the conclusion, you should be summarizing the main arguments of your work, and probably making a recommendation. Still don’t use personal pronouns here too
“As we can see this is a difficult issue …”
“To conclude, we should be …”
Again it would be better if you were using the passive.
“As can be seen …”
“To conclude, xxx should be …”
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