Vague (abstract, unclear)
If a sentence or passage is vague, it often contains abstract rather than concrete nouns. Here are some other causes of vagueness:
- a pronoun doesn't have a clear noun to which it refers
- you've written "this" to refer to an idea from a previous sentence, but it's not clear what idea you mean
- you've put so many clauses between the subject and verb that the sentence is hard to follow.
If you find that your writing is vague or unclear
- make sure that each time you use a pronoun, you can point to the noun that it replaces
- always place a noun after "this"
- make sure that your verb follows your subject, without any clauses in between.
"Vague" is a comment professors often make in their comments about essays. Click
here to see others.