Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick TYler
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karibou
my inner editor began flailing and twitching as soon as they realized that that entire thing was one sentence
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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:
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Originally Posted by JaneYoung
Use Of Punctuation In A Post And What Is Annoying or Confusing
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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?