State this writer shortened personal article (4)
I believe the answer is:
iowa
'state' is the definition.
(I know that Iowa is a state)
'writer shortened personal article' is the wordplay.
'writer' becomes 'I' (the person who is writing these clues).
'shortened' means to remove the last letter.
'personal' becomes 'own' (eg one's own possessions are personal possessions).
'article' becomes 'a' (the indefinite article in English).
'own' with its last letter taken off is 'ow'.
'i'+'ow'+'a'='IOWA'
'this' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for iowa that I've seen before include "'Hawkeye State'" , "US state, capital Des Moines" , "US swing electoral state" , "Central US state" , "part of United States" .)