Unanchored 'this' and 'that'

'This is significant' — 'this' what? Anaphoric pronouns without clear referents introduce ambiguity at every paragraph break.

What ProfText flags

Unnamed visual reference. Breaks in different layouts or when shared out of context.

How to fix it

Add explicit label: 'Figure 3: Customer Growth'.

Why this matters

Pronouns without explicit antecedents are a leading cause of editorial confusion. The author knows what 'this' refers to; the reader, three sentences later, often doesn't. Replace with the noun: 'this finding', 'this delay', 'this contractual clause'. The cost is one word per occurrence; the benefit is documents that survive being read out of order.

Languages

• en
• fr
• de
• it

Detection pattern

\b(this\s+table|this\s+chart|this\s+figure|this\s+diagram|the\s+chart\s+on\s+the\s+(left|right))\b

Related rules

• 'Above' and 'below' layout references'As shown above', 'see below' — references that depend on page layout and break in re-flowed or copy-pasted text.
• 'The following' — vague forward reference'The following table', 'the following list' — forward pointers that break when content moves or is excerpted.
• References to 'the previous section''As discussed in the previous section' — breaks the moment a heading is renamed or content is reordered.