To indicate choice between multiple options
Often on forms, you’ll be given the answer options using a forward slash to separate them:
Sex: male / female
On a side note, the ‘yes, please’ answer to this question is very, very old, and isn’t really funny to people who’ve seen it a hundred times!
The forward slash can also pop up in general sentences, although it’s rather tacky and not recommended for formal writing:
Mary told each student to close his/her book.
When the slash is used to account for both genders like in this sentence, it’s better to use a plural, gender neutral pronoun:
Mary told each student to close their book.
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