| His
or Hers? Problems that Plague the Modern Grammarian
A
few weeks ago, I invited some of my readers to join in a "grammar
gripe-session" on my blog. Many people used the opportunity
to vent freely, while others asked for advice. One question
of particular interest came from Marie Rippel, creator of
the All
About Spelling program - an authority on the English language
herself. Marie said:
I'm
looking for smooth ways to avoid saying he/she, his/her. Sample
sentence: "Each student should have his own set of flashcards."
(and
then she continues,)
It
was drilled into me in English class that you don't write,
"Each student should have their own set of flashcards."
We actually had worksheets in grade school where we reworded
sentences to avoid such situations, and ended up with passive
sentences like, "A set of flashcards should be given
to each student." Yuck.
I
am tempted to use "their" instead of "him."
I wouldn't be sweating this, except that my audience consists
of English teachers!
Dina
responds: I've seen this problem handled in
different ways. Some do ignore the verb disagreement and replace
with "their." I've grabbed this makeshift solution
in a pinch, but I won't lie to you and say I was without guilt
over the issue. I agree with you, Marie... this is the wrong
choice for someone such as yourself, who teaches the building
blocks of reading and writing!
In
a few of my articles, you'll watch me flip-flop back and forth
between he and she, his and her. I'll use a male for the first
example, and a female for the second, then back to male, and
so on. This way, at least things are balanced out and I'm
not showing a preference for one gender over the other. However,
in the case where you see only one instance of this, I typically
choose "his" unless I'm writing to a female-skewed
audience. I've never received a complaint about it.
Marie
also asks: I know that you should
avoid ending a sentence with a preposition, but sometimes
the resulting sentence is stilted. Any suggestions?
Original
sentence: "As new letter tiles are
introduced, you will be shown which label to place them under."
Correct,
but stilted: "As
new letter tiles are introduced, you will be shown which label
under which to place them." I changed back to the original
sentence in order to preserve a conversational tone, but I
know that it isn't grammatically correct.
Dina
Responds: Marie,
I would take my cue from today's copywriting feature and say
that we should do away with the passive verbs here. Rewrite
the entire section to something like:
Place
each letter tile under its appropriate label, as indicated
by the instructions.
Thanks
to everyone who responded to the blog
post on grammar peeves! (Comments are still open if you'd
like to jump in as a latecomer.) |
