Toward Better Inclusion - A Language Question

LibInternationalist

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Mon Aug-13-07 02:46 PM
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Toward Better Inclusion - A Language Question

The brilliant thread here - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=229x7615 - has me thinking about how the language should be changed to be more inclusive. "Man" is obviously inadequate to describe the species generically, so what would be best? "Human"? "Person"? What about a good third-person pronoun?

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noamnety

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Mon Aug-13-07 03:44 PM
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1. The APA has good guidelines on this.

Examples:

The philosopher uses his reason to guide him.
alternative: Philosophers use their reason to guide them. (Use plural nouns when referring to generic sweeping groups) OR: The philosopher uses reason as a guide. (delete the pronoun altogether.)

The department chair must submit his budget by March 1st.
alternative: The department chair must submit a budget by March 1st. (Use articles ('the', 'a', 'an') instead of personal pronouns.)

If the writer plans ahead, he will save a lot of effort.
alternative: The writer who plans ahead will save a lot of effort. (Use 'who' for 'he'.)

more: http://www.apa.udel.edu/apa/publications/texts/nonsexist.html

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LibInternationalist

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Tue Aug-14-07 08:08 AM
Response to Reply #1

2. Thanks

Now the younger we teach that, the better :)

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