Sadly, William Safire died on Sunday. For 30 years he wrote a column in the New York Times “On Language” that explored written and oral trends, and discussed the origins and meanings of words and phrases.
I think he would be in agreement with my consternation about the widespread practice of using the singular and plural together incorrectly. This bad habit began when it became politically incorrect to use the generic “he” when referring to all individuals whether man or woman. It is no longer acceptable to say: “Each employee will have his time sheet in by 5 p.m. Friday.” No, no, bad. You are immediately added to the list of boobs who don’t know better.
So to get around this, you will see memos that state: “Each employee with have their” timesheet in by 5 p.m. Friday.” This literally makes me cringe. Here are three more actual examples of poor grammar:
- A TV ad for Consolidated Credit had the spokesman saying: “Eight – that’s the average number of credit cards a person has in their wallet.”
- “Each employee will have their own unique personality….”
- “An author’s success is determined by how efficiently they plan, write, promote, and profit from their book.”
It’s possible to get around the problem of using bad grammar by using the third person. “Employees will have their time sheets in by 5 p.m. Friday.” But this doesn’t always work, so there are a couple of solutions that I find useful.
One is to alternate using he and she throughout a document. Using the above example, “Each employee will have his time sheet in by 5 p.m. Friday. In particular, there have been laggards in the art department. If you speak to an employee and she doesn’t improve, then send a note to Human Resources.” Another trick is to use s/he as in, “Do not even think of hiring a writer or design firm until you have met with the CEO to understand how s/he wishes the organization to be positioned in the document.”
These are not perfect solutions. But in deference to William Safire, please do not ever pair “each” with “their.”
Jeannette Paladino, Write Speak Sell, http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannettepaladino
When the writer alternates the gender of the pronouns during the course of a paragraph I find my attention drawn away from whatever the paragraph was about.
I tend to go with “he/she” or “his/her.” But after doing that a few times in a sentence (or short paragraph), I start feeling a little encumbered.
I make correct use of “they” and “their.” But at the same time, I wouldn’t be averse to a formal rewriting of grammatical rules to allow for the use of either together with singular nouns.
I agree with Chris. I have intentionally ignored the singular/plural rule to avoid the he/she thing because it is so cumbersome. Being a grammar fanatic myself, it is painful, but so are all the alternatives. So my thinking is, if you can find an easy way around it, go for it. If not, Mr. Safire is no longer on this planet and hopefully having a whole lot more fun that we are.
Grammar mangled is definitely an awkward problem. I personally don’t mind he throughout a document if the grammar is correct. I also find s/he is suitable alternative. It is adjectives used as adverbs that really makes me cringe. While it doesn’t happen in the writted word a great deal, it is appearing in TV and radio broadcasts all too frequently.