COMPARE:

-Unlike nouns, anaphoric elements do not, themselves, indicate a referent. This means readers have to figure out the referent. Doing that entails more processes for the reader to manage. These aren't impossible to accomplish, but do require more work.

REVISED: Unlike nouns, anaphoric elements do not, themselves, indicate a referent. Using anaphoric elements means readers have to figure out the referent. Having to figure out the referent entails more mental processes for the reader to manage. The additional processes aren't impossible to accomplish, but do require more work.

The second sentence above could be further revised to combine some of the sentences, but the point here is to illustrate how filling in the referent keeps a reader's mind from having to constantly fill in information from the previous sentences.