Gender neutral - any new developments in your neck of the woods?

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Dan Glovier wonders: <<Is anyone a fan of using "they" as the gender neutral
singular pronoun of choice?>>

It's certainly grammatically valid, but I try to write around it wherever
possible. For example:

<<"The first time a user accesses their account, they will have to enter
their e-mail address and give praise to tech writers everywhere.">>

"The first time you... you will have to enter your..." or "The first time
users access their account, they must enter..."

<<I guess my real question is whether or not the usage above has gained any
momentum in the past year or so or is this still a sticky subject that has
several solutions?>>

Still a sticky subject. Not everyone likes the singular "they", and for that
reason, you're better to avoid it via of any of several simple solutions.

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada 

Vah! Denuone Latine loquebar? Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur. (Oh! Was I
speaking Latin again? Silly me. Sometimes it just sort of slips
out.)--Anonymous

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