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People will figure out what you meant, but also judge your writing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they#Usage_guidance_in_American_style_guides https://
by erik_seaberg 6y ago
People will figure out what you meant, but also judge your writing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they#Usage_guidance_in_American_style_guides https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they#Usage_guidance_i... reports a panel of linguists and writers were 82% against it.
I was taught generic “he.” That upsets some people now, so Strunk & White says rewrite the sentence as plural, and I do.
- joshuamorton 6y agoThe survey you're citing is from before I was born. Things have changed in the intervening 25 years. Pretty much every style guide on the wiki page since ~2010 allows or prefers singular they. This includes, as previously mentioned, the APA, the AP, the NYT, WaPo, and a number of other relatively large and formal publications. Perhaps the odd man out is the Chicago Style guide, which says singular they is fine for informal writing, but doesn't yet recommend it for formal writing. While yes, some Baby Boomer linguists may prickle at the singular they, for many in Gen Z, its all they've ever been exposed to, and for many Millenials, they've now used singular they for longer than other forms, in both formal and informal language.
- xupybd 6y agoI'd still like a dedicated plural to use as a pronoun for a group. We could get a new word for that.