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Unread 06-11-2009, 11:27
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Tristan Lall Tristan Lall is offline
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Re: Use Of Punctuation In A Post And What Is Annoying or Confusing

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick TYler View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karibou View Post
my inner editor began flailing and twitching as soon as they realized that that entire thing was one sentence
Emphasis added. The Earth must be irony all the way to the core.
The singular use of they is a somewhat reasonable way of expressing concepts that would otherwise be clumsy. English lacks a gender-indeterminate or -neutral singular pronoun that can refer to a specific subject (one doesn't work when the subject is identified). Granted, in the above example, one could have substituted "it" if one* didn't mind forgoing the implied personification of the "inner editor"; otherwise, the canonical way to express that would have been to employ "he or she", or to imply a particular gender (both of which could potentially distort the intended meaning).

Quote:
Originally Posted by JaneYoung
Use Of Punctuation In A Post And What Is Annoying or Confusing
Since this thread concerns writing style, may I be permitted to take Jane to task for her aberrant capitalization?

*See how clumsy "one" can be, despite the sentence being conditional?
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