{"id":219,"date":"2013-03-19T14:42:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-19T14:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2013\/03\/19\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_19\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:18","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:18","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_19\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nHe, him, she, her, they, their, and them<\/i>:
\nsuch simple words, which can give writers a large problem. When an author\u2019s fingers
\nare flying across the keyboard he<\/i>
\ndoesn\u2019t always stop to make sure that the pronouns used are a match. The misuse
\nof pronouns is such a common occurrence that many readers don\u2019t recognize the
\nauthor\u2019s mistake. I speak from experience.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHe, him, she, <\/i>and her<\/i> are singular forms. They,
\ntheir, and them<\/i> are plural forms. The truth is, most people recognize this
\nfact. However, when writing, authors are prone to structure a sentence like
\nthis: A student (note: one student) should always turn in their (more than one
\nstudent) homework.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThis
\nexample should be easy enough to correct: A student should always turn in his homework.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nNow,
\nthough, another problem has been created for readers who feel that the use of a
\nmasculine pronoun is sexist. A<\/i> is an
\nindefinite article. In this case, \u201ca student\u201d can refer to every student (whether
\nmale or female) because every student should turn in his or her homework. At
\nthis point, the author is slapping his forehead and saying, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be
\nkidding. I have to use both he<\/i> and she<\/i> in every sentence with that
\nstructure?\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nNo. A
\nbetter solution exists: Students (more than one\/gender neutral) should turn in
\ntheir (plural\/gender neutral) homework.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nNon-fiction
\nauthors have a problem keeping the gender neutrality throughout their work.
\nEven in the writing of this blog, I have run across the problem. Making the \u201csexist\u201d
\nproponents happy is a very laborious task. My thoughts about keeping such readers content is stated above: “You’ve got to be kidding.” And I add: “Get over yourself.”<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nMy
\nsolution: I\u2019d rather offend someone by forgetting about the neutrality than I
\nwould want to offend a readership who will very quickly grow tired of the
\ncontinual use of \u201che and she\u201d in every sentence. I also want to remain grammatically correct, so I refuse to concede.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe best solution for this
\ndilemma is for an author to state that for simplicity\u2019s sake, the masculine or
\nthe feminine form of the pronouns will be used <\/i>and that said form is meant to
\nbe inclusive of both genders.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHowever,
\nan author should always be diligent in their<\/i>
\nself-edits and look for conflicting pronouns. They <\/i>should keep an eye out for their<\/i>
\nmistakes.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nOops, let
\nme rephrase that: An author should always be diligent in his<\/i> self-edits and look for conflicting pronouns. He<\/i> should keep an eye out for his<\/i> mistakes.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHappy editing,<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He, him, she, her, they, their, and them: such simple words, which can give writers a large problem. When an author\u2019s fingers are flying across the keyboard he doesn\u2019t always stop to make sure that the pronouns used are a match. The misuse of pronouns is such a common occurrence that many readers don\u2019t recognize […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}