PSAT Glitch

[Baker, John]

        In today's Washington Post, there is an article about a purported error in the PSAT (which I believe is the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test).  Educational Testing Service came under fire for scoring the following sentence as free of grammatical errors:  "Toni Morrison's genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustice African Americans have endured."

        The question is not whether "injustice" should be "injustices"; the Post made the word plural in its account, apparently inadvertently.  Rather, the question is whether "her" is used correctly when its antecedent is the adjective "Toni Morrison's."  A Maryland high school journalism teacher named Kevin Keegan argues that this is incorrect.  The Washington Post article is online at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51947-2003May13.html

        Keegan's rule (for which there apparently is support in some but not all grammar manuals) strikes me as difficult to defend.  I can see no way to recast the sentence without worsening it.  "Toni Morrison's genius enables Toni Morrison . . ." is awkward, while "Toni Morrison's genius enables the writer . . ." is ambiguous because "the writer" may not be Toni Morrison.  Toni Morrison could be, for ought that sentence tells us, a literary agent or a prior writer like Shakespeare.

        Keegan's view is not supported by the online dictionaries I have at hand.  The OED says a pronoun is used "when that which is referred to is known from context or usage, has been already mentioned or indicated, or, being unknown, is the subject or object of inquiry."  Merriam-Webster says a pronoun's "referents are named or understood in the context."  American Heritage says a pronoun "designates persons or things asked for, previously specified, or understood from the context."

        Any thoughts?


John M. Baker