Re: style (was stylus)

Ronald Connelly (ronconn@u.washington.edu)
Thu, 29 May 1997 13:57:26 -0700 (PDT)

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> On Thu, 29 May 1997 FotoDave@aol.com wrote:
> > PS: Are people really very sensitive about gender pronoun as described in
> > books? It is tiring to always type he/she. Will people really mind if I just
> > use his as the generic pronoun?
>
> On Thu, 29 May 1997, Judy Seigel wrote:
>
> 4. If you change construction to the plural, "they" solves the problem.

This option actually has a very long history in the English language.
Prior to the Nineteenth Century, the rules of grammar were less rigid, and
some writers used "he" while others used "they". The Victorians ignored
the gender neutral precedents and codified the singular "he" as the
neutral pronoun.

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