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Political correctness

Avoid feminised nouns

Avoid something-man nouns

Avoid gender assumptive language

Gender neutral pronouns

Using gendered pronouns

Using gender neutral pronouns

Gender neutral names of people

Using he she

Racism homophobia religion sexism

Political correctness gone too far

Using gender neutral pronouns

You use gender neutral pronouns when you’re not sure about the sex of the thing you’re talking about, and you don’t want to introduce any bias into your writing. For instance, if you’re talking about a doctor who’s coming around to see you, use gender neutral language unless you know who the doctor is:

The doctor is coming to see me; they should be here soon.

But if it’s a doctor whose name you know, then you can use a gendered pronoun:

Doctor Robert Zhang is coming to see me; he should be here soon.

Now, strictly speaking, ‘they’ is a plural pronoun, so it shouldn’t be used to represent a singular subject like ‘the doctor’. However, it’s basically accepted in today’s English language, and the hassle it saves more than outweighs the problems with using it. Just be aware if any really pedantic (really fussy about being accurate) teachers bail you up on it. Be ready to come back with something about how many famous authors, like Shakespeare, use it, and how it is useful as a gender neutral pronoun.

Click here to move on to the next topic: Gender neutral names of people