Sentences in a row opening with a demonstrative

demonstrative-opener-runon by default (info)Japanese / English

Sentences in a row that open with a word pointing back (This, That, It)

Example

Flagged

We introduced a new procedure. This was meant to cut the work. It reduced overtime. That effect should continue next month.

What chaff prints

1:32 3 sentences in a row open with a word that points back, such as "This" (limit 2)

Fixed

We introduced a new procedure. This was meant to cut the work. The procedure reduced overtime, and the reduction should continue next month.

What chaff prints

no finding

How to fix

Replace one of the demonstratives with the noun it points at (This → The new procedure; その結果 → 調査の結果).

Why it matters

Sentence after sentence opening with a word that points back (This, That, It; これは, その結果) sends the reader back each time to find what it points at, and blurs whether it means the last sentence or one before. Only runs within one paragraph are counted.

What it does not flag

The count restarts at each paragraph. Words such as それぞれ, the conjunction そして, and phrases that change the subject (それはとにかく, それはさておき) are not counted. In English, an opening that names the document itself ("This Agreement", "This section") and an "it" that stands for what follows ("It is worth", "It seems") are not counted.

Turning it off or relaxing it

Silence this one spot (in the document)

Relax it for the team (the reason is kept as a comment in chaff.yaml)

npx chaffjs relax demonstrative-opener-run --why "reason"

Turn it off for the team (chaff.yaml)

rules: demonstrative-opener-run: off

Technical details

Layer: L3
Status: stable
Severity: info
Languages: Japanese and English
Suited to: business, technical, blog, legal, docs, academic, literature, speech
Reads from the document: pos

Levels

Set a level for this rule under rules in chaff.yaml. With nothing set, it runs at the level its genre gives it (see By genre below).

strict	up to 1 such sentences in a row
normal	up to 2 such sentences in a row
relaxed	up to 3 such sentences in a row

By genre

Runs by default in: technical/spec, technical/readme, blog/tech, blog/essay, blog/owned-media, business/proposal, business/report, business/email, business/press-release, business/meeting-notes, legal/contract, legal/statute, legal/judgment, legal/patent, docs/manual, docs/faq, docs/glossary, academic/paper, speech/address, speech/transcript
Turned off by the genre in: literature/fiction, literature/essay, literature/poetry, literature/play

Genres

Message

{count} sentences in a row open with a word that points back, such as "{word}" (limit {limit})

Rewrite depth (chaff fix-plan --depth): light — words and sentences; the structure and the voice stay

This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/demonstrative-opener-run.yaml