A pupil reads, “Mei handed the folder to Aisha after she checked the label.” Who checked the label?
The sentence can be interpreted in more than one way. A reader may use context to recover the intended person, but if the context is weak, the pronoun itself is not enough.
Reference is one of the quiet systems holding a passage together. Pronouns, demonstratives, repeated nouns, synonyms, substitution and omitted information allow writers to avoid repeating every idea in full. The same devices can also create comprehension errors when the reader loses track of what each expression points to.
Cohesion is the network of links that lets one sentence hand meaning to the next.
This guide develops the reference work from Reading, Comprehension, Inference and Evidence, Grammar Cloze, Editing and Sentence Control and Comprehension Cloze: Cohesion, Context and Whole-Text Meaning.
Quick answer: track the chain
When a reference word appears:
- Identify its grammatical role.
- List the likely earlier noun or idea.
- Substitute the candidate back into the sentence.
- Check number, person and meaning.
- Read forward to see whether the reference remains coherent.
A compact routine is SPOT → CANDIDATE → SUBSTITUTE → CHECK → CONTINUE.
The official 2026 boundary
Reference and cohesion support several Paper 2 jobs: Grammar, Grammar Cloze, Comprehension Cloze, Synthesis / Transformation and Comprehension. They also support writing accuracy across Paper 1.
Official reference routes: SEAB PSLE Formats Examined in 2026 and the 2026 PSLE English Language document. All examples below are original eduKate teaching material.
Pronouns compress meaning
“Nadia picked up the blue folder. She checked its label before returning it.”
She points to Nadia. Its points to the blue folder. The final it also points to the folder.
The reader carries these references across the sentence without repeating “Nadia” and “the blue folder” every time.
Number and grammar narrow the possibilities
“The pupils placed the boxes beside the table because they were wet.”
They is plural and could refer to pupils or boxes. Grammar alone does not solve the ambiguity.
Context must decide. If the previous sentence says rain had soaked the boxes, then boxes is the stronger referent. If the pupils had just run through the rain, either may remain possible.
Reference questions sometimes require meaning beyond grammar.
Nearest noun is not always the answer
“Maya placed the marker beside the ruler before using it.”
The nearest noun to it is ruler, but the intended object may be marker depending on the next sentence.
Do not teach “choose the closest noun” as a universal rule. Use substitution and context.
Demonstratives can refer to whole ideas
“The side entrance had no sign, so several visitors stopped to ask for directions. This created a queue near the doorway.”
This does not refer to one nearby noun. It refers to the situation of visitors stopping to ask for directions.
When a demonstrative follows a whole event, ask whether the reference is sentence-level rather than noun-level.
That, this, these and those
These words can act as determiners or pronouns and can point backward or forward.
“The pupils made two changes. These reduced the waiting time.” — These refers to the two changes.
“This is what the class learned: labels work only when readers can see them.” — This points forward to the statement.
Lexical cohesion: writers repeat ideas without repeating exact words
A passage about a repair workshop may use tools, equipment, screwdrivers, spanners, repair kit. These words form a topic chain.
A passage about uncertainty may use hesitated, unsure, doubtful, paused, reconsidered. The words are not synonyms in every context, but together they can build a coherent pattern.
Strong reading notices idea chains, not only identical repetition.
Synonyms can preserve topic while changing tone
“The child looked at the sign. The notice warned visitors not to enter.”
Sign and notice may refer to the same physical object if the context supports it. The second word adds a functional description.
Do not assume every change of noun introduces a new object.
Substitution: one word replaces a larger phrase
“The red marker had dried out, so Amir borrowed another one.”
One substitutes for marker.
“Some pupils preferred the indoor route; others chose the outdoor one.”
One substitutes for route.
Substitution keeps sentences lighter while preserving the comparison.
Ellipsis: some words are omitted because the reader can recover them
“Maya brought two rulers, and Ben three.”
The second clause omits brought. The reader recovers it.
“I chose the blue folder; Amir, the green.”
The omitted verb phrase remains understood.
Ellipsis is more common in certain writing styles than others, but recognising omitted information helps reading.
Reference can cross paragraph boundaries
A writer may introduce “the old registration system” in paragraph 2, describe several problems in paragraph 3, and begin paragraph 4 with “This arrangement was replaced the following week.”
The reader must carry the earlier noun phrase across the paragraph break.
Paragraph breaks organise ideas; they do not reset reference automatically.
Original passage: The Blue Tray
Paragraph 1. The class kept completed permission forms in a blue tray beside the teacher’s desk. Pupils placed their forms there when they arrived.
Paragraph 2. On Tuesday, Mei noticed that several blank forms had also been placed in the tray. She moved those to a shelf near the door.
Paragraph 3. Later that morning, Amir looked for a blank form but could not find one on the usual table. Mei pointed towards the shelf. “I moved them because they were getting mixed with the completed forms,” she said.
Paragraph 4. Amir collected a blank form and returned to his seat. A few minutes later, another pupil approached the blue tray and began searching through it.
Paragraph 5. “If you’re looking for a blank one, they’re over there,” Amir said, pointing towards the shelf. The pupil thanked him.
Paragraph 6. By lunchtime, the teacher had added two labels: COMPLETED FORMS on the tray and BLANK FORMS on the shelf. This made the separation visible even to pupils who had not heard Mei’s explanation.
Reference questions
1. What does “those” in paragraph 2 refer to?
2. What does “them” in paragraph 3 refer to?
3. What does the first “they” in Mei’s explanation refer to?
4. What does “one” in paragraph 5 refer to?
5. What does “they’re” refer to?
6. What does “This” in paragraph 6 refer to?
Worked answers
1. “Those” refers to the blank forms that had been placed in the blue tray.
2. “Them” refers to the blank forms.
3. “They” refers to the blank forms, which were becoming mixed with completed forms.
4. “One” refers to a blank form.
5. “They’re” refers to the blank forms.
6. “This” refers to the teacher adding separate labels for completed and blank forms, making the separation visible.
Why Question 6 is different
The first five mostly refer to nouns. Question 6 refers to an action or arrangement. Pupils who search only for the nearest noun may answer “the shelf” or “the labels”, missing the whole relationship.
Substitution test
Replace the reference expression with the proposed answer.
“If you’re looking for a blank form, blank forms are over there.” Meaning survives, though repetition becomes awkward. The referent is plausible.
“If you’re looking for a blank form, completed forms are over there.” The passage meaning breaks.
Reference and inference work together
If the pupil assigns “they” to the wrong noun, later inferences may collapse.
In paragraph 3, if “they were getting mixed” were incorrectly assigned to pupils, Mei’s motive would become nonsensical.
Reference is therefore upstream of interpretation.
Reference and grammar work together
Number agreement can help:
“The box was beside the chairs because it was damaged.” — singular it points naturally to box.
“The boxes were beside the chair because they were damaged.” — plural they points naturally to boxes.
But agreement narrows candidates; context still decides.
Reference and writing clarity
Writers should repair ambiguous pronouns before readers have to.
Weak: “When Aisha spoke to Mei, she was worried about the deadline.”
Clearer if Aisha is worried: “Aisha was worried about the deadline when she spoke to Mei.”
Clearer if Mei is worried: “When Aisha spoke to Mei, Mei was worried about the deadline.”
Repeated nouns are not a failure
In functional writing and comprehension answers, exact nouns often increase clarity.
“Please return the form to the teacher after your parent signs the form” is repetitive and can be improved.
“Please return the form to the teacher after your parent signs it” is clear because only one form is active.
But in a paragraph containing three forms, repeating the exact noun may be safer.
Topic chains across paragraphs
Consider this chain:
reminder → notice → sign → message → instruction.
The words may refer to one physical sign or to related communication elements. Track whether the passage introduces new objects or renames the same one.
Use article clues: a sign often introduces; the sign often refers to an already known one.
Definite and indefinite articles as reference clues
“A visitor approached the table. The visitor asked for directions.”
A visitor introduces. The visitor refers back.
This simple pattern helps pupils identify continuity.
Possessives carry relationships
“Maya returned Ben’s ruler to his desk.”
His most naturally refers to Ben, but context matters if another male person is present.
Possessive pronouns and determiners can encode ownership, not only person.
Reference in visual text
“Bring your completed form. It must be signed before registration.”
It refers to the form.
“Registration closes on Friday. This applies to all participants.”
This refers to the closing rule or deadline.
The same reference logic operates across multimodal and continuous prose.
Reference in listening
Spoken reference is harder because the earlier noun disappears.
“The buses will stop at Gate 4. They will leave at 8.30.”
The listener must retain the buses as the referent of they.
If a second plural noun intervenes, attention becomes more important.
Reference in synthesis
When combining sentences, a pupil can accidentally create ambiguous pronouns.
Original: “Maya spoke to Lina. Lina had lost her card.”
Weak synthesis: “Maya spoke to Lina because she had lost her card.”
Who lost the card?
Clear: “Maya spoke to Lina because Lina had lost her card.”
Original passage: The Two Lists
Paragraph A. The sports club kept one list of pupils attending Saturday practice and another list of pupils borrowing equipment.
Paragraph B. Both were printed on white paper and placed beside each other. Their headings were small.
Paragraph C. One morning, Joel signed the wrong list. He wrote his name under equipment borrowers even though he had borrowed nothing.
Paragraph D. The coach noticed the mistake when she checked the equipment count. She crossed out Joel’s name and enlarged both headings.
Paragraph E. She also placed the attendance list on a clipboard and the borrowing list beside the equipment table. This separated the two tasks physically.
Paragraph F. At the next practice, no pupil asked which list to use.
Questions
1. What does “Both” in paragraph B refer to?
2. What does “Their” refer to?
3. What does “One” in paragraph C refer to?
4. What does “the mistake” in paragraph D refer to?
5. What does “This” in paragraph E refer to?
6. How does the phrase “the two tasks” connect back to paragraph A?
Worked answers
1. The attendance list and the equipment-borrowing list.
2. The two lists.
3. One of the two lists—the equipment-borrowing list.
4. Joel signing the equipment-borrowing list even though he had not borrowed equipment.
5. Moving the attendance list to a clipboard and the borrowing list beside the equipment table.
6. The two tasks are recording attendance and recording equipment borrowing, the separate purposes introduced in paragraph A.
Cohesion through repetition
Paragraph A introduces two purposes. Paragraphs B–E repeatedly return to the two lists, headings, mistake and tasks. This repetition is not clumsy; it creates a stable topic chain.
Cohesion through contrast
The passage also contains a contrast:
Before: two similar-looking lists beside each other.
After: enlarged headings and separate locations.
Cohesion can therefore come from repeated structure, not only repeated words.
Missing antecedent problem
A pronoun without a clear antecedent creates confusion.
Weak: “They placed it beside the door.”
If the previous sentence contains no clear plural group and no clear singular object, the reader cannot recover the meaning reliably.
Writers should introduce the noun before using the pronoun.
Long-distance reference
Some passages return to an earlier object after several paragraphs.
Teach pupils to keep a small mental registry of major entities. If a “red folder” appears in paragraph 1 and returns in paragraph 5 as “the same folder”, the definite phrase signals continuity.
Reference questions under time
Use the smallest sufficient window:
- read the sentence containing the reference;
- read one sentence before;
- list candidates;
- substitute;
- widen only if needed.
Do not reread the whole passage automatically.
Three pupil profiles
The nearest-noun chooser: selects the closest noun. Repair substitution and context.
The pronoun guesser: uses “he/she/it” without tracking. Repair referent mapping.
The exact-word reader: misses lexical cohesion because synonyms look like new topics. Repair idea chains.
Independent transfer: The Red Card
Paragraph 1. Visitors to the school exhibition received a small red card at the entrance. It listed three activity stations.
Paragraph 2. At each station, a volunteer stamped the card after the visitor completed the activity.
Paragraph 3. Some visitors folded theirs and placed them in pockets. Others carried the cards in their hands.
Paragraph 4. At the final station, one child could not find hers. Her father searched the bag while she checked her pockets.
Paragraph 5. A volunteer found a folded red card beside the previous station and brought it over. The child’s name was written on the back.
Paragraph 6. This allowed the volunteer to return it quickly.
Questions:
1. What does “It” in paragraph 1 refer to?
2. What does “the card” in paragraph 2 refer to?
3. What does “theirs” in paragraph 3 refer to?
4. What does “hers” in paragraph 4 refer to?
5. What does “it” in paragraph 5 refer to?
6. What does “This” in paragraph 6 refer to?
Transfer answers
1. The small red visitor card.
2. The red activity card each visitor received.
3. Their red cards.
4. The child’s red card.
5. The folded red card found beside the previous station.
6. Writing the child’s name on the back of the card, which made identification possible.
A four-week cohesion cycle
Week 1: pronouns and noun referents. Week 2: demonstratives and whole-idea reference. Week 3: lexical cohesion, substitution and paragraph chains. Week 4: transfer into comprehension, cloze, synthesis and writing.
What parents can observe
- Can the child explain what a pronoun points to?
- Can the child substitute the noun back into the sentence?
- Can the child recognise when “this” refers to an action or idea?
- Can the child track synonyms as one topic chain?
- Can the child repair an ambiguous sentence?
- Can the child carry a reference across paragraph boundaries?
Secondary 1 bridge
Secondary texts use more complex reference chains, lexical cohesion and paragraph-level connections. The Primary 6 habit to carry forward is active tracking of who, what and which idea each expression refers to.
Continue with Secondary 1 Cohesion Across Sentences and Paragraphs and Paraphrasing and Summary.
Continue Batch 6
Use Inference Across Paragraphs to connect these reference chains to interpretation. Continue with Cause, Contrast, Sequence and Comparison and Independent Weekly Revision.
Return to the Secondary English Learning Hub.
The quiet return
Passages become easier to hold when the reader stops treating every sentence as separate.
Track the people. Track the objects. Track the ideas. Follow what each sentence inherits from the one before it.
