Re: use of he/she/they

[Sella Rush <SellaR -at- APPTECHSYS -dot- COM>]

Yeah, Tim, I was trying to find a good example for my post and couldn't
come up with one that I couldn't easily reword!  I know I've come across
situations a few times, however.

Re awfulness, though--I think it's a question of sensitivity.  There are
people who absolutely gag at sentences ending in a preposition, because
it breaks the rule (which incidently was instituted back in the 19th (?)
century because no Latin phrases ended in prepositions, and Latin is of
course the purest language!)

BTW, your sample sentence has so much going on that it is confusing
(there's an I, an us, and a he/she/them); also, your "boss" seems to be
a specific person, and so would presumably have a specific gender.

"The consulting firm in charge of this project must have their personnel
in place by January." (but simply removing the pronoun solves the
problem!)

BTW again, I agree with all who say to stick with second person where
possible; unfortunately it's not always possible.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sella Rush
mailto:sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
Applied Technical Systems, Inc. (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington USA
Developers of the CCM Database

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