Try It: Nouns and Pronouns

Read the following introduction to a research paper written by an undergraduate microbiology student. As you read, critique the use of nouns and pronoun case, clarity, and agreement. The sentences have been numbered to aid you in your comments.

Scanning electron micrograph depicting a mass of Yersinia pestis bacteria

Yersinia pestis (the cause of the bubonic plague)

(1) The type-six-secretion-system (T6SS) has been identified as a mechanism by which Vibrio cholera can resist predation by larger predators, such as protozoa, and by which it can alter the environment around it by killing other bacteriums. (2) Other bacteriums also contain the T6SS, but them have not been well studied. (3) In some bacteriums, the T6SS appears to play an active role in host virulence as they assist the bacteriums in altering the host environment. (4) The bacterium Yersinia pestis has genes which encode for several T6SSs, but they have not been well studied in virulence against different types of bacteriums. (5) In this study, we hypothesize that the T6SSs in Y. pestis kill a variety of bacteriums. (6) Identifying the function of these genes in Y. pestis could assist in understanding the mechanism by which the bacteriums infect the host and cause disease. (7) It could also give a novel target for future antibiotics.