From the Examiner’s Desk

Lesson 5 of 20

Avoid Starting Sentences with “This”, “These”, “Those” and “They”

“I frequently examine theses in which years of excellent research are obscured by weak writing.”

You have spent years conducting your research. Will your writing allow your examiner to recognise its true value?

Why Students Do This

Students often assume the reader automatically knows what words such as ‘this’, ‘these’, ‘those’ and ‘they’ refer to. After working with the same document for months, the meaning seems obvious to the author but not always to the examiner.

Why Examiners Notice

Every vague pronoun interrupts the flow of reading. The examiner must pause, look back through previous sentences and decide what the pronoun represents. Repeated interruptions make a thesis harder to read.

Why This Costs Students Marks

Clarity is a hallmark of good academic writing. Ambiguous pronouns weaken logical flow and can make sound arguments appear less precise than they really are.

Before and After

Before:
These suggest that treatment was effective.

After:
These results suggest that the treatment was effective.

Before:
This demonstrates the importance of sample preparation.

After:
This observation demonstrates the importance of careful sample preparation.

How to Improve Your Writing

Search your thesis for ‘this’, ‘these’, ‘those’ and ‘they’. Whenever one appears at the beginning of a sentence, ask yourself whether adding a specific noun would make the meaning clearer. In most cases, it will.