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by David Beach, English, Interim Director of Composition
In English, we strive for inclusionary language, but we also strive for conciseness. Using s/he, him/her, himself/herself over and over again becomes a tedious read, artificially increases word count, and lacks style. How do we get around this?
To be grammatically correct, writers need to consider three things when using pronouns:
The pronoun must agree in number with its antecedent.
We all tend to use a form of “they” when referring to a generic human: “Every student must include their revision summary on their paper in order to improve their grade.” However, “student” is singular, and “their” is plural. A simple solution is to pluralize the antecedent: “Students must include their revision summaries on their papers in order to improve their grades.” This is tricky with words such as everybody, anybody, anyone, each, neither, nobody, or someone. These are singular nouns, and so pronoun referents must be singular as well: “Everybody should submit his or her essay on Wednesday” (NOT: their essay).
The National Council of Teachers of English, however, suggests in its 2002 “Guidelines for Gender-Fair Use of Language,” that the plural pronoun can be used when indefinite referents are “clearly understood to be plural,” e.g.: “Does everybody have their book?” The Council also suggests using a “singular they/their form,” as in “Does each student have their book?” rather than “…his book.” They note, however, that though this form has become more acceptable over time, assessment testers may deem it incorrect.
The pronoun must agree in person with its antecedent.
Here is a typical example of switching between third (the antecedent) and second person (the pronoun): “When a person comes to class, you should have your homework ready.” Grammatically, the “you” should be changed to “he” or “she” and “your” to “his” or “her”; however, a correct and more concise sentence would read: “When students come to class, they should have their homework ready.” (Note the change in verb form from singular to plural, as well.)
The pronoun referent must be clear.
In the following example, it is unclear to which noun the pronoun refers: “Even though the painting fell off the wall, it was not damaged.” Does “it” refer to “painting” or “wall”? To correct this, a pronoun should not be used: “Even though the painting fell off the wall, the painting was not damaged.”
Reference: NCTE. (2002.) Guidelines for gender-fair use of language. Retrieved from http://www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/lang/107647.htm.
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