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Am I unusual here? I find that I use personal pronouns in my work
only on very rare occasions. Not because I'm avoiding them, but
because, on the rare occasions that I'm referring to a person,
it's usually either the reader or some specific hypothetical individual.
So I tend to use either "you" or something like "the operator" or
"the designer." Not to be gender neutral, but to be clear and specific.
I find that I can solve most of my writing problems by asking
"Can I find a way to be more clear and specific here?"
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From: Richard Mateosian[SMTP:srm -at- c2 -dot- org]
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 1996 6:59 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list TEC
Subject: Re: Gender bias (was Evolving language
>Using "he" doesn't distract most readers, because it's a default
>condition, not an abnormality.
It distracts me. ...RM
Richard Mateosian Freelance Technical
Writer
srm -at- c2 -dot- org Copyright 1996 Review Editor, IEEE
Micro http://www.c2.org/~srm/ All rights reserved President, Berkeley
STC
