Pronoun and Symmetry Problems contine to plague Experienced Writers

Don't let water or anything good go to waste!

(1) Great leaders of Malaysia would be remembered as those who gave every Malaysian, regardless of their race and religion, a chance.

(2) Eight months have gone by and four years is hardly light years away.

The sentences enumerated above are taken from the article Change, don’t end up as history.

The pronoun 'their' in the first sentence can stand for or represent 'great leaders'; but obviously that is not the intended meaning. It has, therefore, to represent 'every Malaysian' which is singular in number. Perhaps, it is used by the writer to avoid the cumbersome 'his or her' to achieve fluency. Such, however, is still a disputed usage. To leave out the pronoun will make the sentence better as 'Great leaders of Malaysia would be remembered as those who gave every Malaysian, regardless of race and religion, a chance.'

In the second sentence, we notice the use of 'eight months' being followed by a plural verb 'have' in the first part with the unsymmetrical use of singular verb 'is' to match 'four years'. The sentence should correctly be 'Eight months have gone by and four years are hardly light years away.'

Nevertheless, the article will definitely be a good read as it contains the writer's good analytical knowledge of its subject matter.

Adversity brings knowledge, and knowledge brings wisdom.
-- Welsh Proverb