TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I'm generally a raving nit-picker when it comes to the "singular" they.
By and large, with complex discussions anyway, you wind up with
constructs that baffle even the most politically progressive mind. To
back down from my soap box a little, I could admit the "singular" they
(in quotes because it really doesn't exist, by definition) given the
following:
* It's in wide use, and you just can't kill the growth of a language
by fiat (a new variant on Godel?). But you can resist...
* The subject matter is simple enough that you won't create wildly
twisted and confusing constructs in the process. I've bothered to
create a few of these in my past rants on the subject - I won't
do it here, so you have to trust me when I say it happens.
* You really need the pronoun. Can't you personalize with a "you"
instead? Can't the writer work the passage so they don't need the
pronoun at all? (Yeech!) Er - I mean, does the passage really
need the pronoun?
Failing these three tests, I insist on choosing a "he" or a "she" and
sticking with it for the duration of the discussion - one paragraph, one
section, one chapter, or one book. I leave issues of scope up to the
editor, who is probably more competent than I to decide (whether the
editor be a she or a he).
In Spanish there is a concept of gender for nouns and their modifiers.
So mass nouns must pick up a gender - if the mass noun refers to a group
that you know consists entirely of females, you can use the feminine...
las alumnas (the female students), las niñas (the girls), las madres
(the mothers). Otherwise you must use the masculine... los alumnos
(the students), los niños (the children), los padres (the parents). The
pc alternative is really quite clever... Use the @ character - called
arroba in Spanish (r-r-roll that R). So it gives you l -at- s alumn -at- s and
l -at- s niñ -at- s -dot- But you're still stuck with padres. And how do your read
it? Larrobas niñarrobas son alumnarrobas como larrobas padres. I like
this more than the "singular" they - just because it's more fun.
--
Chris Despopoulos, maker of CudSpan Freeware...
Plugins to Enhance FrameMaker & FrameMaker+SGML http://www.telecable.es/personales/cud/
cud -at- telecable -dot- es
---
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.
