Re: Gender-specific pronouns

[Spencer Fleury <boylston_st -at- YAHOO -dot- COM>]

--- Suzette Seveny <sseveny -at- petvalu -dot- com> wrote:
> I agree with avoiding the use of they/their in
> singular situations as well.
>  How about a simple reword, "the user will", or try
> writing in the second
> person (which I tend to do in my User Guides) and
> say "you will".  The use of a
> pronoun might not be necessary in all situations.
>


That would work fine in situations relating solely to
the reader.  This problem comes up when I have to
describe how the reader will interact with other
people (the general manager, the production manager,
the sales rep) and what the responses of these other
people may or should be.  For example:

"If you have a technical emergency and your area's
Technical Support Specialist is not available, leave a
message describing the problem on their voice mail.
If they do not return your call within 30 minutes,
contact the Support Desk."

The reader would certainly notice (and most likely be
distracted by it) if I were to use the phrase
"Technical Support Specialist" three times within that
short paragraph.

Otherwise, I use the second person when describing
what the user will be doing with our software.

Thanks,

Spencer Fleury
Trader Publishing Company




===

Remember: "Y'all" is singular. "All y'all" is plural. "All
y'all's" is plural possessive.

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