His and Her vs Their

Judith · Post by **Judith** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 6:56 am

Here we go again! A couple of years ago I received a rejection for using "their" instead of "his and her." So ever since then I have abandoned the use of "their" in similar situations. This morning I receive a rejection for using "his and her" and was told to use "their." I never write a complaint in the forum but since last week when I had some rejections over a ton of similar things in the current events project, I must say I am a bit frustrated. I am more than happy to follow rules, but it would be nice if the rules didn't change with each editor. It hurts all of us when there is no consistency in these preferences. I am resubmitting using "their," because it is a private request. If it wasn't, I think the article would just go on one of my own sites.

Okay I have had my rant!

Lysis · Post by **Lysis** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 9:12 am

I have 10 rejections in a row for wordiness. I'm taking a break.

Judith · Post by **Judith** » Sat Sep 06, 2014 5:32 pm

Lysis wrote:I have 10 rejections in a row for wordiness. I'm taking a break.

I got my first wordiness rejection last week. I'm a very tight writer and I could not figure out where it was wordy. Then I discovered it was a single word description. Example - Critical juncture should just be juncture - stunning photography should just be photography -

The reason I believe it was it went through when I removed the descriptive adjective (I should remove the word descriptive here). I can't figure out anything else it can be for wordiness. It seems to be one editor, and maybe they are new and trying too hard. I'm sure they want to do a good job as much as we do. Anyway... don't take a break! Keep writing articles and just triple and quadruple edit before submitting them.

weagle87 · Post by **weagle87** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 9:14 am

Whew - this whole thing has me discouraged. If Lysis got that many rejections, then I'm happy to be grading papers at the moment instead of writing them.

However, here's my tip on their vs. his/her. Change the sentence so that the antecedent is plural or use an article instead of a pronoun to describe the noun.

Judith · Post by **Judith** » Mon Sep 15, 2014 6:22 pm

weagle87 wrote:However, here's my tip on their vs. his/her. Change the sentence so that the antecedent is plural or use an article instead of a pronoun to describe the noun.

Excellent suggestions!!

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