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Although I do not often use "he" generically, I feel duty bound to defend
those who do.
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In following this stream, I note that writers who have problems with using
gender-neutral language seem to be largely of the male persuasion.
Let's get real, folks. We're technical, not creative writers. When our
language gets in the way of the information we need to present, the language
is wrong. Political correctness (or the lack thereof) is irrelevent. To me
that means doing anything literally possible to avoid gender-specific
pronouns, but doing so in a way that is not so obvious as to offend Rush
Limbaugh (or, for that matter Phyllis Schlaffly) either.
(By the way, purals are nice, and quite gender-neutral.)
Marianne Adams
marianne -at- boston -dot- handson -dot- com
