I like today's Grammar Girl's post, about whether you should use he, she, or they, when referring to a person of unknown gender. Though it's grammatically problematic, I'm firmly in the they camp.
Taryn from Evansville, David from New Jersey, and a listener named Gina also asked about this problem, and I think Betty summed it up best by saying, “He or she seems too awkward, he seems sexist, and one seems archaic.†I would add that exclusively using she also seems sexist, the hybrid s/he seems silly and awkward, and switching between he and she is downright confusing to readers.
I think in wholly depends on context. For instance, in his translation of the Tao De Ching, Steven Mitchel swicthes between He and She pretty seamlessly and its not confusing at all. This is because the Tao is made up of lots of small, independant chunks.
However, in a text inwhich the pronoun continually refers to the same instance of a person, obviously switching them would be really confusing.
In technical writing, I tend to alternate randomly between he, she and rarely one. I also try to avoid using pronouns all together if it can be elegantly avoided.
I agree. I also think that "they" is not as ungrammatical as some people would imply. Language is living, and enough people say "they" that I think it's perfectly justified.
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I think in wholly depends on context. For instance, in his translation of the Tao De Ching, Steven Mitchel swicthes between He and She pretty seamlessly and its not confusing at all. This is because the Tao is made up of lots of small, independant chunks.
However, in a text inwhich the pronoun continually refers to the same instance of a person, obviously switching them would be really confusing.
In technical writing, I tend to alternate randomly between he, she and rarely one. I also try to avoid using pronouns all together if it can be elegantly avoided.
I agree. I also think that "they" is not as ungrammatical as some people would imply. Language is living, and enough people say "they" that I think it's perfectly justified.