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I've noticed a tendency in recent technical literature to use feminine pronouns, instead of the more traditional masculine. For example one might write she [the user] enters her password. It's not difficult to see how this may come to be in the age of political correctness, but I always found it quite amusing. To countervail, some computer scientists have started calling the motherboard "fatherboard", which is even funnier.

Which brings me to my question: When I write technical documentation, I use the plural them or their with a singular user. For example, I might write something along the lines of the user enters their password, in an attempt to sound vague and non gender-identifying, while at the same time preserving the notion of the user as a person. While this sounds acceptable to my foreign ears, it occurs to me that I might be severely abusing the language.

  • Is my usage of their in this context correct?
  • Is there something else that I can use in its place?
rath
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  • Re duplicate: It actually is. My search didn't turn it up, apologies. – rath May 23 '14 at 14:49
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    Use 'one' or the singular 'they'. Both are grammatical. The latter sounds better to me. The gendered pronoun sounds wrong to me because it always brings up 'How do you know that?'. Like split infinitives or ending a sentence with a preposition, it's simply a style choice. – Mitch May 23 '14 at 15:22

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Them and its ilk has become a colloquial third person singular pronoun, and is perfectly fine from a descriptivist standpoint. However, in terms of prescriptive rules, he or she is necessary. To keep things PC, I've seen official papers alternate between the two every time they're used, but that gets messy and awkward. S/he has been used as well, but that's even more awkward.

If you're going to write something where the grammaticality is important, choose a gendered pronoun and stick to it, or use the semi-awkward one e.g. One's own way of doing things. Otherwise, them is acceptable.

Andy
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  • Yes, alternating between the two is very annoying. I've tried to use one but it doesn't always fit in with the tone or flow, although I prefer it whenever I can. Thanks – rath May 23 '14 at 14:57
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    Singular "they" is perfectly acceptable English - don't let prescriptivists tell you otherwise! It's been used since the 14th century. If singular "they" was good enough for Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and George Bernard Shaw, then it should be good enough for anybody. – tobyink May 23 '14 at 19:49