Remove the nonreferential this to improve clarity

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Remove the nonreferential this to improve clarity

Over at Phillip Wadler's blog there is a post pointing out an article in the latest CACM which, in a sidebar at the bottom of page 36, suggests that it is a good idea to chase instances of the nonreferential this from student's written work.

While it sounds pedantic at first, you get a huge increase in clarity by chasing the "nonreferential this" from students' writing. Many students (and others) use "this" to refer to a whole concept rather than a noun. For example: "If you turn the sproggle left, it will jam, and the glorp will not be able to move. This is why we foo the bar." Now the writer of this prose fully understands about sproggles and glorps, so they know whether we foo the bar because glorps do not move, or because the sproggle jammed. It is important for students to put themselves in the place of their readers, who may be a little shaky on how sproggles and glorps work, and need a more carefully written paragraph. Today, it is not that hard to find a "this" that is nonreferential. Almost all begin sentences, so grepping for 'This' will find them.

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Remove the nonreferential this to improve clarity