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In your thesis writing, you need to refer to the same term very frequently. However, if you keep using the same words every time, your writing will sound very repetitious. Read the following example to see what we mean.
Example
Mark offered Lisa the box of chocolates. She took two of
the chocolates out of the box of chocolates. She put one of the chocolates
down on the saucer of her cup. She started eating the other one of
the chocolates she had taken out of the box of chocolates. Then she
started eating the other chocolate that she had taken out of the box of
chocolates. "These chocolates out of the box of chocolates are delicious"
she said. "Is that chocolate out of the box of chocolates delicious?"
he replied. "Why don’t you take another chocolate out of the
box of chocolates?" he suggested. "I will take another chocolate
out of the box of chocolates" she replied. And so she took another
chocolate out of the box of chocolates. (Eggins 1994, p. 91)
word count 131
Excercise: How can you fix this paragraph by using pronouns?
As you can see, this paragraph is not only very repetitious, it is also hard to read. How can you fix this paragraph by using pronouns?
Write your version of the improved paragraph and then click on the suggested answer link.
From this exercise, you can see that using pronouns to refer to key terms can improve the flow of your writing, as well as making it more concise (compare word counts).