Use: It is (not) clear that
higher education plays an
important role in…
Please turn your journal
in to me at the end of
class.
Journal: What difference
does higher education
make in one’s life? How
does university affect
inequality in Ecuador?
(5 sentences)
Pronouns

A Guide to Academic Writing

What is an it-cleft?
 It + be + adjective
It is
clear/useful/important
it + be
“it” is also known as a ‘dummy
subject,’ because it is not It +’being’ verb
referring to anything.
(Also, you can create a similar It seems/appears/looks
construction with there + be)

With adjectives
- it is possible to/that
- it is likely that
- it is significant to/that
- it is necessary to
- it is interesting to
- it is difficult to
- it is clear that
- it is true that
With modals
- it may be that
- it may be possible to/that
- it should be possible to/that
- it may be necessary to/that
- it is i important to/that
- There is a possibility that
- There has been a rise/fall in…
- There is no question that…
- There is no need to…
- There is little chance that…
With passive
verbs
- it can seem that
- it should be noted that
- it has been suggested that
- it has been… (determined,
found, argued, stated,
implied, shown)
Everyone needs to go to university to get a
good job.

vs.

It has been demonstrated that people who

attend university are more likely to attain a
high-paying job.
What are demonstrative
pronouns?
 One of the simples
cohesive devices in English.
Demonstrative
To use demonstrative
Pronouns pronouns, it must be clear
This, That, These and Those what specific noun or
phrase they are referring
to.
What’s wrong here?
Since cows are housed in areas that cannot be kept clean,
they face increased incidence of diseases and other health
problems, which result in high costs for farmers. This is the
reason why other farming systems are being considered for
lowering this cost of milk production.

(The second “this” does not have an immediate noun or noun

phrase that it is referring to. Thus it sounds strange.)
 Much more frequent in the
prose of NNs prose than in
Indefinite that of Ns.

Pronouns
everybody, everything, nothing,
Common in conversation.
anyone, every, any, etc.

Delete! Replace!
Replace or Rephrase:
People hear the word “information”
everywhere any day. They usually define it as
news, facts, knowledge, data, and so on.
Everyone wants to have as much information
as they can when they make business
decisions. However, in every field of business,
information is different for everyone, and it
depends on what people specialize in.
What are enumerating
nouns?
 Demonstrative pronouns
need to be much closer to
Enumerating their referent than
enumerating nouns.
Nouns
Enumerating nouns can
Lexically simple nouns that can
refer to several textual points at refer to many more ideas
the same time. than demonstrative
pronouns.
How is democracy affected by the problems
discussed in the previous chapter?

vs.

Democracy is affected by X, Y and Z. These

problems change the way we must write our
legislation.
Enumerative Nouns
- advantage - element
- approach - event
- aspect - evidence
- behavior - fact
- category - issue
- challenge - method
- characteristic - practice
- result
- consequence
- technique
- difficulty
It is necessary to continue investigating the
behavior…
It is clear that the challenges faced by…

It should be noted that the study lacks…