The Ambiguous Pronoun in a Summary
In a summary writing task, students must read a 400-word article about a town's decision to ban plastic bags. The article states: 'The town council voted 5-2 to ban single-use plastic bags starting next month. Local shopkeepers argued that the ban would increase costs because they would have to provide paper bags, which are more expensive. However, environmental groups praised the decision, saying it would reduce litter. The mayor, who supported the ban, said, "We must think of the long-term benefits."' A student, Kabelo, writes the following summary: 'The town council voted to ban plastic bags. Shopkeepers said they would have to provide paper bags, which are more expensive, so they opposed the ban. Environmental groups praised it. The mayor supported the ban and said we must think of long-term benefits.' His teacher comments, 'Your summary is accurate but you have used too many words and some pronouns are vague. You need to cut it to 50 words and make it clearer.' Kabelo's summary is 55 words.
1. Identify two vague pronouns in Kabelo's summary and explain what each refers to. Then revise the summary to 50 words or fewer, eliminating the vagueness.
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Two vague pronouns: (1) 'they' in 'they would have to provide paper bags'-this refers to shopkeepers, but it is not clear because the previous sentence's subject is 'shopkeepers' but the pronoun could be misread as referring to the council. (2) 'it' in 'Environmental groups praised it'-this refers to the ban, but the antecedent 'ban' is not in the immediately preceding sentence; the previous sentence is about shopkeepers and paper bags, so 'it' is ambiguous. A revised summary (48 words): 'The town council voted 5-2 to ban single-use plastic bags. Shopkeepers opposed the ban, saying paper bags cost more. Environmental groups praised the ban for reducing litter. The mayor supported it, citing long-term benefits.' This replaces 'they' with 'shopkeepers' and 'it' with 'the ban,' and cuts unnecessary words like 'which are more expensive' to 'cost more.'
2. Explain why the original summary was 55 words and suggest specific word-cutting strategies that would bring it to 50 words without losing essential information.
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The original summary is 55 words. To cut 5 words, Kabelo can: (1) Remove 'which are more expensive' (4 words) and replace with 'cost more' (2 words), saving 2 words. (2) Change 'said they would have to provide paper bags' to 'said paper bags cost more' (saving 3 words). (3) Remove 'the ban' in 'opposed the ban' to 'opposed it' (saving 1 word). Together these save 6 words, bringing it to 49 words. However, the teacher also wants clarity, so replacing vague pronouns is important. A better approach: rewrite the shopkeeper sentence as 'Shopkeepers opposed the ban, citing higher costs for paper bags.' (10 words vs original 15 words, saving 5). Then the summary becomes 50 words exactly. The essential information-vote, ban, shopkeeper opposition, environmental praise, mayor's support-is retained. The key is to eliminate redundancy and use precise nouns instead of pronouns where ambiguity arises.