As promised, I am sending you some links about using degendered or inclusive language when you write. For some of you, this may seem a bit silly. You may well argue that people understand that when you say 'he', you mean 'he' and 'she' and/or that there are countless papers that can be found in journals and on the web where degendered or inclusive language cannot be found.
The problem however is that the are enough difficult people like me out there both in academia and the 'real world' who will either take offence at your use of gendered / noninclusive language and/or will [perhaps unfairly] simply dismiss what you have written because of your use of it.
Using degendered language is very simple and once you start using it when ever you write or speak, you will find that it will simply become habitual.
For some ideas about what some people have argued should be done see:
Do's and Don'ts of Inclusive Language
Inclusive Language - Grammatical Issues
2 comments:
simonswritingroom
I've been of the understanding that when usage of a pronoun is unavoidable and the gender is unknown, that in English, the male pronoun includes the female gender. A grammatically correct alternative would be to use "it," but would be considered demeaning as well.
I find the usage of "they" or "their" when one is clearly referring to a single person to be somewhat strange. I know that it confuses me when I see such usage.
Oh, and I've seen many articles recently that exclusively use the pronoun "she." I'm of the impression that "feminists" are behind this, and it's become the new cool thing to do. Do you know anything about that?
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