Quote:
|
Originally Posted by kerry edwards
Yep, the 'It is' is a good test.
I think one of the problems with the the 'Every child. . .' example is that it forces a person to make a gender distinction so the proper form becomes 'his or her' which seems more awkward than 'their'.
|
. . . the gender distinction, that is. "His" is perfectly acceptable -- it covers both genders -- and has been solid usage for hundreds of years.
If you have more than one sentence in your piece with such a construction, you could always alternate "his" with "her," as long as the context supports it. By which I mean, if you're talking about testicles or something exclusively male, it would be pretty silly to use "her."
It's time we stopped being politically correct, especially when it comes to ruining our language.