What's in a Pronoun?

Welcome to the Lakeview Editorial Services blog. We'll be discussing ways to make your business communications more clear and informative for your customers. 

Today we're talking about pronouns. What's in a pronoun? A simple pronoun can mean so much--especially to organizations that wish ensure their written communications are gender-inclusive and to ensure they acknowledge their transgender or non-gender conforming employees and customers.  

Progressive, forward-looking editorial organizations have formalized the trend to use "they" when referencing back to a singular noun. For example: "If the student wishes to withdraw from class, they must do so online by September 14." This is the alternative to the more formal and very limiting "he or she." In this instance, the use of "they" can avoid clunky sentence constructions and gender exclusion--but alas, this convention is not yet widely accepted for formal usage. 

You could recast that sentence as follows by using the plural: "Students who wish to withdraw from class must do so online by September 14." This is one way to avoid using "they" as a reference to a singular noun or using "he or she." 

There's another issue behind the use of "they"--"they" can refer to an individual who is transgender or for another reason wishes to go by "they" instead of "he" or "she." For someone who is transgender, honoring the way in which they wish to be named or referred to is deeply meaningful.

However you decide to handle these types of pronoun references, document your style standard in your organization's style guide and make sure you use it consistently. It may just mean the world to someone.