Hello! I'm Lahla Deakins, your new MALS Writing Consultant. I am a
2008 graduate of the MALS program, and am very excited to get to read your
interdisciplinary research! In addition to my work as your trusty writing
consultant, I have a small business in Knoxville, where I teach pottery
lessons and sell my own pottery. But enough about me! Let's talk grammar, shall
we?
I know, I know—grammar can seem a dry topic, but don't click away
from this post just yet. I'm willing to bet that many of you have scratched
your heads over the same grammar rule I've been pondering. Until recently, I
hadn't questioned this rule at all—once I learned it, it really stuck with me,
and I took comfort in this certainty:
Don't use a plural pronoun with a singular
antecedent!
In other words...
NEVER: "Someone left their plate on the table."
ALWAYS: "Someone left his or her plate on the table."
Sure, if you are speaking this sentence aloud to your family
members, one of whom has failed to deliver a plate to the dishwasher after
dinner, you're probably not going to use the latter sentence. But when you are
writing (probably not to your family members), you won't want to use
"their" (which is plural) to refer to "someone" (which is
singular)! Now, I have certainly caught myself typing "their" when I
should have typed "one's" or "his or her," but I usually
catch the mistake in my proofreading.
Or is it a mistake?
Since I've lately come across a few examples of pronoun
disagreement, I went in search of a grammar blog post or some other online
resource to illustrate the rule. But lo and behold, I found many (many!)
grammar and language blog posts and web sites in FAVOR of the singular
"they" or "their"! Why? It seems that many of these
bloggers feel it's time for a shift in grammar rules to reflect the way people
really use "they" and "their." This
one argues that since we
wouldn't say "his or her" in regular
speech, we shouldn't have to write it, either. And of course, there is the
argument that "they" offers a gender-neutral option that is more
concise than "he or she."
But I'm not going to direct you to any more sources in favor of
the singular "they" for two reasons:
1) I went right to one of the most important sources (for MALS
students, anyway!), Dr. LeRoy-Frazier. When I asked for her thoughts on the use
of the singular "they," she sent me an e-mail that read, in part,
"NO NO NO NO NO!!!!" Do you really need a better reason to stick with
traditional pronoun agreement in your academic writing? You can find the rule
illustrated here on
the Purdue Online Writing Lab, or check out this Grammar Girl post to learn how to
either re-write your sentence to avoid the problem, or just fix it. Also, Paul
Brians' web site on usage errors has this helpful entry on the topic.
2) Why should we ignore a grammar rule in our academic writing
simply because we don't use it in regular speech? We say all kinds of things
that we wouldn't write down in an assignment and hand in to a professor! So
what if, "When someone writes a blog post about grammar, he or she should
be sure of the rule about which he or she writes," sounds a little stuffy
when read aloud? I want to sound much smarter in my academic writing than I do
when I chat on the phone with my friend.
Of course, as MALS students and interdisciplinary writers, we want
our writing to be thoughtful and inclusive, and certainly not sexist. Dr. LeRoy-Frazier shares this
bit of wisdom on the topic: "I
understand that some see [the singular 'they'] as a means of negotiating the
tricky matter of gender-neutral reference, but it’s quite inelegant. If we
stretch ourselves a bit, we can always find ways to preserve the grammaticality
of a sentence without resorting to the 'universal he'—by using 's/he,' for
example, or by alternating references to 'she' and 'he.'"
So, there's no need to make every ambiguous subject a
"he," no need to throw out a perfectly good grammar rule, and no
reason at all why you shouldn't sound smart in your academic writing!
Do you have questions about a particular aspect of writing or
research? Please share them with me! Until then, happy writing!
~Lahla
