Understood Pronoun-- Default Masc. Gender?

[mariposa]

Remember when we were growing up and we were taught that if the gender of a person is unspecified, we should use the masculine pronoun? I have seen many contemporary magazines, (especially parenting magazines) alternating between "he" and "she." What does Ed prefer that we do here? I personally prefer the old school method. Do clients generally prefer that we word our articles in a way that this situation is avoided? Or can I go ahead and use "he" throughout my articles. I write many articles about parenting, so this is a common dilemma for me.

Here is an example of the situation I am talking about:

"Open-ended toys will grow with your toddler because they allow him to add layers of complexity to his play as his thinking becomes more sophisticated."

BTW: Is that sentence awkward?

[BarryDavidson]

It depends on the article. Often I will use gender-neutral words (but not every time). Granted, the method I use would make me have to split the sentence up a bit.

Open-ended toys will grow with your toddler because they allow your child to add layers of complexity to his/her play - as their critical thinking skills become more sophisticated.

Or something like that.

[Ed]

It's the current style to alternate between "he" and "she," and this practice shows you're in line with the times. Using only "he" has fallen out of fashion and shouldn't be done, just as using "one" as a way of not saying "you," shouldn't be done.

Barry's suggestion of using gender-neutral words can also be implemented to some extent, as long as the pronoun "they" isn't awkwardly substituted as an ungrammatical alternative.

Repeated use of "he/she" or "his/her" is wordy and distracting, so this should also be avoided.

Thanks,
Ed

[BarryDavidson]

What Ed said... He's the boss.

Lately, I've been lucky not to have had any assignments which require me to specify "anyone" other than "you" because they were mostly tutorials. If we're not careful we'll wind up with another abbreviation like Ms. instead of Miss or Mrs (except it'll be gender neutral and hard to remember).

When in the most doubt, refer back to the subject if it won't cause the sentence to be awkward. Since you're referring to children in your example, you can use child or children in places.


You spend so much time trying to get your child to talk, and when they finally do, they tend not to shut up for the next twelve to fifteen years. It's not that you don't want to talk to your child, but you also don't want to hear what Sonic the Hedgehog did to the bad guy in great detail for ten hours straight. (Not my best work, but it's not too awkward in my mind.)

[Ed]

Err . . . but then we have the ungrammatical use of "they, which is not really desirable. The following blog post discusses this further and contains links to resources:
http://www.constant-content.com/blog/?p=140

[mariposa]

Ed- should I revise my submitted manuscripts before you reject them? I used "he" throughout.

[Ed]

I haven't yet looked at your articles, but I suggest revision. This will make your article more appealing to your potential customers and their readers.

Thanks,
Ed

[mariposa]

I revised the article and re-uploaded it. Thanks for the advice.