{"id":173777673,"date":"2017-02-27T13:35:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-27T13:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/answershark.com\/writing\/?p=173777673"},"modified":"2019-09-02T08:48:09","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T08:48:09","slug":"gender-sensitive-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/payforwriting.com\/writing\/writing-tips\/gender-sensitive-language.html","title":{"rendered":"Gender Sensitive Language in Academic Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"i-georgia\">Both in oral communication and correspondence, English-speaking people have been traditionally taught that a usage of masculine nouns and pronouns is preferable for indicating the subject(s) whose gender is variable or unclear, or when a group consists of<br \/>\nrepresentatives of both sexes. However, over the last century, women have become involved in public life so actively that the way gender relationships and identities are expressed was reconsidered. Because both men and women deserve social equality and rights, we should be careful with the words we use. This is especially true of nouns and pronouns.<\/p>\n<article class=\"text-block\">\n<h3>Guidelines on How to Use Gender Sensitive Nouns<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>1. When writing a letter, you often do not know who the recipient is: male or female. To avoid any confusion, you may write<br \/>\n\u201cTo Whom it May Concern,\u201d but this impersonal appeal is not always appropriate for business correspondence. So, it is better to use<br \/>\n\u201cDear Sir\/Madam,\u201d \u201cDear Service Representative,\u201d or \u201cDear Editor.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>2. In informal writing, be careful with the expression \u201cyou guys\u201d because it is gendered male. Instead, use \u201cmy friends\u201d to &#8216;refer to a group that consists of both men and women.<\/li>\n<li>3. Use the contractions \u201cMr.,\u201d \u201cMiss,\u201d and \u201cMrs.\u201d correctly. You can write \u201cMr.\u201d to refer to any man, whether he is married or single.<br \/>\nAs to appeal to women, you should use \u201cMrs.\u201d to refer to a married woman, while \u201cMs.\u201d does not indicate marital status.<\/li>\n<li>4. When you are writing about two or more people with the same last name, you should use his or her full name every time you refer to this person.<\/li>\n<li>5. Refer to women as to men by their full titles.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/article>\n<article class=\"text-block\">\n<h3>Tips on How to Use Gendered Pronouns<\/h3>\n<p>According to current linguistic and social norms, you can not substitute sex-neutral third-person singular nouns (\u201ca teacher,\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cthe politician\u201d, or \u201csomeone\u201d) with a pronoun \u201che\u201d as it was earlier. In situations when the referent can be both male and female, you should:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Use \u201cthey\u201d<br \/>\nEven if the reference is singular, you should substitute it with a plural pronoun \u201cthey.\u201d For example: If a teacher wants to<br \/>\nknow about new trends in teaching methodology, <em>they<\/em> should take refresher courses.<\/li>\n<li>Use he or she or he\/she<br \/>\nThis option is still used, but it gradually became obsolete and is increasingly being replaced by \u201cthey.\u201d For example:<br \/>\nA real teacher is the one who teaches students to think rather than memorize mechanically. <em>He or she<\/em> should be a mentor and supporter.<\/li>\n<li>Alternate genders and pronouns<br \/>\nThis option is used rarely and mainly in hypothetical situations. For example, training and courses are useful for<br \/>\nboth male and female teachers. So, you can write: \u201cEvery teacher should be an active participant in educational trainings and courses. <em>He<\/em> should ask questions.<br \/>\n<em>She<\/em> is supposed to participate in the discussion.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Eliminate a pronoun altogether<br \/>\nFor example: Stanley Davidson is a dedicated teacher. <em>This author of many scholarly monographs<\/em> remains with the students<br \/>\nafter classes to explain material in detail.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/article>\n<article class=\"text-block\">\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Helpful Vocabulary for Alternatives to Gendered Nouns<\/h3>\n<div class=\"table-wrap\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Gendered Noun<\/th>\n<th>Gender-Neutral Noun<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>chairman<\/td>\n<td>chair person, chair, coordinator<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>congressman<\/td>\n<td>congress person, representative, legislator<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>freshman<\/td>\n<td>first-year student<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>mailman<\/td>\n<td>postal worker, mail carrier, letter carrier<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>man<\/td>\n<td>person, individual<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>mankind<\/td>\n<td>people, humanity, human beings<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>man-made<\/td>\n<td>machine-made, synthetic<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>steward, stewardess<\/td>\n<td>flight attendant<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>the common man<\/td>\n<td>the average person, the ordinary person<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>to man<\/td>\n<td>to operate, to staff, to cover<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>When writing a letter, you should avoid gender-biased nouns and pronouns and replace them by gender-neutral ones. You have to know in advance who<br \/>\nyour receiver is: male or female. This will help you to avoid confusion.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Both in oral communication and correspondence, English-speaking people have been traditionally taught that a usage of masculine nouns and pronouns is preferable for indicating the subject(s) whose gender is variable or unclear, or when a group consists of representatives of both sexes. However, over the last century, women have become involved in public life so actively that the way gender relationships and identities are expressed was reconsidered. Because both men and women deserve social equality and rights, we should be&#8230; <\/p>\n<footer class=\"more\"><a class=\"show-more-btn\" href=\"https:\/\/payforwriting.com\/writing\/writing-tips\/gender-sensitive-language.html\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/footer>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25299989,25299987],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173777673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rules-to-follow","category-writing-tips"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/payforwriting.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173777673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/payforwriting.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/payforwriting.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payforwriting.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payforwriting.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173777673"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/payforwriting.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173777673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173781884,"href":"https:\/\/payforwriting.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173777673\/revisions\/173781884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/payforwriting.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173777673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payforwriting.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173777673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/payforwriting.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173777673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}