Gender Reference

[Richard Sobocinski <"Richard_G_Sobocinski%~WHC207"@CCMAIL.PNL.GOV>]

In writing technical documentation it has been generally taboo to use any
form of gender reference, such as he or she. Alternatives I have seen have
ranged from using the third person plural to the new form; (s)he.

I would appreciate any feed back from colleagues who use these, or
alternatives to these. I am reviewing our style manual, and am not happy with
simply stating that gender reference should not be used. I would like to be
able to provide examples/alternatives.   Thanks in advance for your time.

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         As much as possible I avoid gender references in my technical
         writing -- mostly because it has no relevance to content.  In
         those rare circumstances when it is necessary to use a
         singular personal pronoun, I default to the generic male
         "he", "his".  I find that using variations of he/she, (s)he,
         he (or she) to be distracting and burdensome to the reader.
         It also comes off as being silly or offensively patronizing
         (depending on your POV) when the audience is almost
         exclusively male.  [Naturally my "default" would be different
         for a gender ratio tilted in the other direction.]

         A common mistake that I notice is the use of "they", "their"
         in a singular sense, which I believe is a lazy way of
         complying with style manuals which prohibit, rather than
         discourage gender reference.

         BTW, I was flogged for this opinion in the copyedit-l mail
         list, which is geared more to general writing.