There is a bit of a problem I’m having with my writing. And that is what to do with the third person singular pronoun when applied to people in general, without regard to gender. I can’t very well use “it” as the pronoun. “He” has traditionally been the default pronoun, but some believe that it unfairly excludes the feminine side of the human race. I’ve read other writers who will just alternate between “he” and “she” in this context. When writing about a person in the general sense, I will often use “they”, even though that pronoun is technically in the plural form. I’ve seen some grammar guides that endorse “they” when used with indefinite pronouns (such as “someone”, “one”, or “anyone”). And that is the sense (a person, not necessarily of one gender or another) that I use “they”. I’ve also just used “he/she” sometimes, but that can get awfully old in a big hurry.
I probably should be more consistent about how I write the third person singular pronoun to refer to a person-in-general, but right now I seem to be all over the map about “he”,"she”, "they” and "he/she”! (And, of course, “his”, "her", "their”, "his/her" plus “him”,"her”, "them”, and "him/her” as well.)
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No one will be happy with whatever you do. Some hate the singular "they", some hate "he/she", some hate "s/he", and so on. Sometimes I try to just randomly pick "he" or "she", and use them both... but, you know, some people hate that too. At least in English we don't have to worry about having the adjectives match the gender too, which makes it worse.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing to do is to re-write to avoid the problem. You can't always, without being ridiculously awkward, but most of the time it does work.
For example, someone will write, "Every parent should know where their children are," which is just creating the problem. So, instead, write, "All parents should know where their children are," and there's no trouble. When it's reasonable, make the whole sentence plural, and all's well.