Welcome! I’m writing about my creative growth in hopes of making this blog an inspirational magnet. I believe this: Everything I need, I already have. And maybe, so do you.
It’s midterm season. I’ve got tons of papers to grade. So I hope you’ll indulge me as I vent about my pet peeve. Because if I have to edit one more homework submission that doesn’t get this right, I’ll be getting on my broom and shrieking into the night until next Saturday -- which is Halloween.
October 24, 2009 3:51 PM
So, my people, after I explain the trick to handling this issue, please treat your old teacher to some proper grammatical form. Don’t let sloppy writing cost you a job or freelance writing opportunity. What we’re talking about here is actually very, very simple. Maybe the best way to get started is by giving an example.
Okay. Here’s a sentence. What’s wrong with it?
I know, getting this straight is confusing because the “they/their” boo-boo is everywhere. Otherwise fine, young writers get it wrong on blogs, websites and in community newspapers. Btw, just look at Twitter. This is the email I get whenever a new person decides to follow me. Very annoying.
The problem is that there’s only one restaurant mentioned.
So if “restaurant” is singular, you can’t use “they.” You have to say “it.”
To be grammatical, this is what we need to write:
If using “it” feels awkward, then tweak it a bit:
“Folks” is plural.
Now, “they” works!
This is so, so wrong! A real writer has to know the difference. In conversation, it’s okay to be ungrammatical and say “they.” But this line should actually read:
“You may also follow Mary D’Ambrosio as well by clicking on the ‘follow’ button for THIS PERSON’s profile.”
By now, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve steered clear of using hard-core grammar talk. That’s because I am not a grammar freak. It’s not my strong point. But to make sure you hear that version on the issue, I emailed my buddy Ellen Scordato, who is a book editor by profession. I met her when I took her New School class, “The Good Sentence.” She taught me how to properly diagram a sentence. I always ask her for grammar help. Here’s what she says about the Twitter set-up and dealing with this entire matter:
“As we all know, there is no gender-neutral third person personal pronoun. This has bedeviled punctilious English speakers since the earliest 20th c.
However, it didn't much bother folks before that, i.e. before 19th c. British grammarians got their hands on the rules and used them as a marker for class, specifically education, specifically a certain type of upper class public school education heavily based on the study of Latin and Greek. Knowing "rules" that had never been part of English previously marked one as a certain sort of person with a certain sort of (privileged) education. This became formalized as prescriptive grammar. But it's not descriptive if accepted usage.
In all but the most formally constructed English, "their" is acceptable in the usage you cite. Especially in oral communication, email, and, certainly, Twitter where the form's economy of characters dictates what some insufferable theorizers might argue amounts to the development of an entirely new dialect.”
If you can’t follow Ellen’s grammar geek explanation, all she’s saying is that it’s okay to be informal in conversation, in emails and on Twitter. But if you’re going to write like an educated person, be aware that you shouldn’t be jotting down “their” when the proper singular form is “it,” “he” or “she.”
And now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get my broom ready for a ride.
Aha!
