TechWhirl Sponsors

---

 

[Author Prev][Author Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
[Author Index (this month)][Thread Index (this month)][Top of Archive]

Re: Gender neutral - any new developments in your neck of the woods?

Subject: Re: Gender neutral - any new developments in your neck of the woods?
From: Jan Henning <henning -at- r-l -dot- de>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2003 18:05:30 +0100

I guess my real question is whether or not the usage above has
gained any momentum in the past year or so or is this still a sticky
subject that has several solutions?

As has been mentioned several times, you can simply circumvent a lot of the he/she problems by addressing the user directly - "The first time, you access your account..." This has the added benefit of being less ambiguous.

In cases where this is not possible (because the reference is indeed to a third person), we usually employ one of three solutions:

- We rephrase - "When it is accessed for the first time, an account...". This may involve the passive voice, which makes it a somewhat problematic solution.

- We use the plural - "When users access their accounts for the first time...".

- We use "he or she" - "When a user accesses an account for the first time, he or she..." While this phrase is distracting when it occurs often, it is OK if used sparingly. (I once checked a typical manual of ours and found that we used "he or she" or "his or her" about once every fifty pages. And of course never twice in the same sentence.)

Regards
Jan Henning

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Jan Henning
ROSEMANN & LAURIDSEN GMBH
Am Schlossberg 14, D-82547 Eurasburg, Germany

Phone: +49 700 0200 0700, Fax: +49 8179 9307-12
E-Mail: henning -at- r-l -dot- de, Web: www.r-l.de
--------------------------------------------------------------------


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Order RoboHelp Office X3 by March 14 and receive a $100 mail-in rebate,
plus FREE WebHelp Merge Module and FREE iMarkup Software, for a
total giveaway value of $439! Order today at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

Help celebrate TECHWR-L's 10th Anniversary starting this month!
Check out the contests at http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/special/contests/
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday TECHWR-L....

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.

---

Previous by Author: Re: Visio question - Line labels SOLUTION FOUND!!!
Next by Author: Re: Intransitive triggering
Previous by Thread: RE: Gender neutral - any new developments in your neck of the woods?
Next by Thread: RE: Gender neutral - any new developments in your neck of the woods?

[Top of Archive] | [Author Index (this month)] | [Thread Index (this month)]

---

---

---