Chapter Summary
In Chapter 8, you learn the importance of a pronoun agreeing with its antecedent in number, gender, and person. An antecedent is the word or group of words to which a personal pronoun refers or that a personal pronoun replaces.

It is important to make pronoun references clear. For example, an indefinite pronoun may be singular or plural. Several (all, any, more, most, none, some) may be singular or plural depending on sentence context. When locating an antecedent for an indefinite pronoun, ignore the intervening words or prepositional phrases.

An unclear reference to an antecedent causes misunderstandings in communication that may create havoc and frustration. When a pronoun seems to refer to more than one antecedent, the sentence needs to be rewritten for clarity. Your study of Chapter 8 will help you determine ways to clarify these situations and other pronoun trouble spots.

Online Links

Workplace Diversity Web sites

Diversity Central
http://www.diversityhotwire.com/

Hire Diversity
http://www.hirediversity.com/

DiversityInc.com
http://www.diversityinc.com/

The Diversity Training Group
http://www.diversitydtg.com/

Women's Work
http://wwork.com/

Diversity Database, University of Maryland
http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Diversity/

National MultiCultural Institute
http://www.nmci.org/

Diversity World
http://www.diversityworld.com/ethnicity.htm

Bonus Exercise

Objective: Identify collective antecedents.

1. Visit several of the cultural diversity sites listed above.
2. Print an article that interests you.
3. Working from the printout, search for collective antecedents. Underline five collective antecedents once and the pronoun references twice.
4. Write a paragraph describing the approach that this article takes to describe cultural diversity. In the paragraph, include one sentence with a collective antecedent and one sentence with an indefinite pronoun antecedent.

eFlashcards
Review chapter terms and definitions with eFlashcards.

Crossword Puzzle
Sharpen your knowledge of chapter terms and concepts with an interactive crossword.

Practice Test
Test your understanding of the chapter material with a self-scoring Practice Test.

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