{"id":307,"date":"2020-09-21T18:48:08","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T22:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=307"},"modified":"2021-09-22T08:39:43","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T12:39:43","slug":"5-6-inclusive-grammar-rules","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/chapter\/5-6-inclusive-grammar-rules\/","title":{"raw":"5.6 Inclusive Grammar \"Rules\"","rendered":"5.6 Inclusive Grammar &#8220;Rules&#8221;"},"content":{"raw":"Other complicated rules to consider are those that vary not just based on the particular group to whom you are writing, but also those that are open to debate. A good example of this sort of rule is the case of what is now called \u201csingular they.\u201d\r\n\r\nIf you were learning English grammar in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries (the 1700s or the 1800s), you would have been taught that a <strong>pronoun<\/strong> must agree with its antecedent. In plain English: a <strong>pronoun<\/strong> is a word that stands in for a <strong>noun<\/strong>\u2014it needs to match that noun in some important ways. This rule leads to the following sorts of examples:\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>CORRECT: The <strong>box<\/strong> is heavy, so <strong>it<\/strong> will break the table. (\u201cIt\u201d agrees with \u201cbox\u201d in that it is singular in number\u2014there is ONE box\u2014and it stands in for things, like boxes but not people.)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>CORRECT: <strong>Students<\/strong> must bring <strong>their<\/strong> books to class. (\u201cTheir\u201d agrees with \u201cstudents\u201d in that there is more than one student and they\/their\/them stands in for people.)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<div>\r\n\r\nCORRECT: <strong>Thomas<\/strong> doesn\u2019t like to read; <strong>he<\/strong> prefers to play cricket. (\u201cHe\u201d agrees with \u201cThomas\u201d in that it is singular in number and gender. Thomas is traditionally a male name, and he is a pronoun for male people.)\r\n\r\n<\/div><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\nSo far, so good. But what if you want to refer to one person in a group that includes both men and women and some non-binary people?\r\n\r\nAccording to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century rules, you would be given the following examples:\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>ERROR: <strong>Each<\/strong> <strong>writer<\/strong> must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>their<\/strong> wit and imagination.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>CORRECT: <strong>Each<\/strong> <strong>writer<\/strong> must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>his<\/strong> wit and imagination.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>ERROR: <strong>Each<\/strong> <strong>writer<\/strong> must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>her<\/strong> wit and imagination.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\nThe logic underpinning these examples is that \u201ceach writer\u201d is singular (one writer), so \u201ctheir\u201d is a mistake because it doesn\u2019t agree in number. But what\u2019s wrong with \u201cher\u201d? After all, there were male and female poets in the 1600s and 1700s. Had you asked this question, a teacher might have patiently explained to you that the <strong>male singular pronoun<\/strong> (<strong>he\/his<\/strong>) is universal\u2014it can stand in for a singular male person (like Thomas) or for a generic, neutral human being who might happen to be male or female. The <strong>female singular pronoun<\/strong> can\u2019t do the same thing. Popular thinking at the time was that gender doesn\u2019t matter when it comes to <strong>pronouns<\/strong> in the same way it does in relation to people. \u201cHe\u201d can stand in for any person.\r\n\r\nBy the twentieth century, feminists had persuaded a lot of people that it is problematic to see the <strong>male pronoun<\/strong> as \u201cuniversal.\u201d If it\u2019s okay to have a singular pronoun stand in for any example of a person, some asked, why does it need to always and only be the male pronoun? Doesn\u2019t this sort of language suggest to women that they don\u2019t really count (much in the same way that terms like \u201cfireman\u201d or \u201cchairman\u201d imply that the jobs we now more commonly refer to as \u201cfirefighter\u201d or \u201cchair\u201d are only for men)? In their efforts to create more <strong>gender inclusive<\/strong> (sometimes also called <strong>gender neutral<\/strong>) language, they offered the following alternatives:\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>CORRECT: Each writer must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>his or her<\/strong> wit and imagination. (Adding \u201cor her\u201d makes the sentence more gender inclusive, and both \u201chis\u201d and \u201cher\u201d are singular, just like \u201cEach writer.\u201d)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>CORRECT: Each writer must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>his\/her<\/strong> wit and imagination. (The slash in \u201chis\/her\u201d here stands in for \u201cor\u201d and thus conveys the same meaning as the previous example\u2014but in a more concise way.)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>CORRECT: Each writer must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>her\/his<\/strong> wit and imagination. (The slash in \u201cher\/his\u201d here stands in for \u201cor\u201d and has the same significance as in the previous example\u2014but putting \u201cher\u201d first implies that the male pronoun doesn\u2019t always need to take precedence, much less be seen as universal.)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>CORRECT: Each writer must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>her<\/strong> wit and imagination. (Here the pronoun matches the referent in number; both are singular. And if the \u201cgender\u201d of a pronoun doesn\u2019t really matter, then why not use \u201cher\u201d?)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>CORRECT: <strong>All writers<\/strong> must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>their<\/strong> wit and imagination. (An easy easy way to make English sentences more gender inclusive is to revise to make the nouns being referred to plural\u2014that way, one can use \u201cthey\/their\u201d: a pronoun that is not only plural but also doesn\u2019t indicate gender. A group of men, a group of women, or a group of men and women can all be referred to as \u201cthey.\u201d)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\nFor most readers, gender-biased language (such as referring to all people as \u201che\u201d) seems odd, maybe even wrong. But there may still be some debates about which of the \u201ccorrect\u201d options above is best\u2014some find <strong>\u201chis or her<\/strong>\u201d unnecessarily wordy while others find <strong>\u201chis\/her<\/strong>\u201d awkward.\r\n\r\nAnd in the past twenty years or so, truly <strong>gender-neutral<\/strong> singular pronouns have been suggested as a way of allowing writers and speakers to refer to an individual person whose gender is not known or who identifies as non-binary. You might see or hear the following:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Ze, xe, se, ey, vey, ver, tey, e, ou (instead of he or she)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Zim, xem, sie, em, ver, ter, eir, hir (instead of him or her)[footnote]If you want to see more options and learn more about the history, dating back at least to the nineteenth century, to create a widely accepted gender-neutral singular pronoun in English, read Dennis E. Barron\u2019s article \u201cThe Epicene Pronoun: The Word that Failed\u201d in <em>American Speech<\/em> 56, no. 2 (1981): 83-97, DOI: 10.2307\/455007 or his more recent article in <em>The Globe and Mail<\/em>: \u201cThe Canadian Politics\u2014and History\u2014of \u2018He,\u2019 \u2018She\u2019 and \u2018They,\u2019\u201d February 21, 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/opinion\/article-the-canadian-politics-and-history-of-he-she-and-they\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/opinion\/article-the-canadian-politics-and-history-of-he-she-and-they\/<\/a>.[\/footnote]<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nThe development that seems most likely to stick is the use of the <strong>existing pronoun \u201cthey\u201d<\/strong> as a <strong>gender-neutral singular<\/strong>. This change means seeing the following examples as correct:\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>CORRECT: <strong>Each writer<\/strong> must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>their<\/strong> wit and imagination.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>CORRECT: When <strong>a student<\/strong> writes a successful essay, the instructor will ask <strong>them<\/strong> to submit this piece of work for the annual writing award.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>CORRECT: <strong>A scientist<\/strong> can get into trouble by being too sure of what <strong>they<\/strong> can do alone.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>CORRECT: My friend <strong>Blake<\/strong> takes <strong>their<\/strong> schoolwork very seriously.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\nIn all of these cases, the <strong>pronoun<\/strong> \u201cthey\u201d (or variations on it like \u201ctheir\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d) refers back to a person (singular) whose gender is unknown and\/or to a person who identifies as non-binary. Depending on your reading experiences, these sentences might seem unremarkable, strange, or even examples of grammatical errors.\r\n\r\nBut <strong>singular they<\/strong> is not only becoming more widely accepted but also allowed (and increasingly endorsed) by some important style guides for academic and journalistic writing such as <a href=\"https:\/\/apastyle.apa.org\/style-grammar-guidelines\/grammar\/singular-they\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">APA<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/reporting-editing\/2017\/ap-style-change-singular-they-is-acceptable-in-limited-cases\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AP<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/style.mla.org\/using-singular-they\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MLA<\/a>.[footnote]See, for example, the following statements issued by these organisations: \u201cSingular They,\u201d APA Style, American Psychological Association, accessed September 14, 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/apastyle.apa.org\/style-grammar-guidelines\/grammar\/singular-they\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/apastyle.apa.org\/style-grammar-guidelines\/grammar\/singular-they<\/a>; Karen Hare, \u201cAP Style Change: Singular They is Acceptable in \u2018Limited Cases\u2019,\u201d <em>Poynter<\/em>, March 24, 2017, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/reporting-editing\/2017\/ap-style-change-singular-they-is-acceptable-in-limited-cases\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/reporting-editing\/2017\/ap-style-change-singular-they-is-acceptable-in-limited-cases\/<\/a>; \u201cHow Do I Use Singular They?\u201d MLA Style Center, Modern Language Association, March 4, 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/style.mla.org\/using-singular-they\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/style.mla.org\/using-singular-they\/<\/a>.[\/footnote] A further example is that most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uvic.ca\/communicationsmarketing\/assets\/docs\/style-guide-web.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">university style guides<\/a>[footnote]By way of example, check out the University of Victoria\u2019s \u201cEditorial Style Guide\u201d: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uvic.ca\/communicationsmarketing\/assets\/docs\/style-guide-web.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.uvic.ca\/communicationsmarketing\/assets\/docs\/style-guide-web.pdf<\/a>[\/footnote] (for writing internal memos, marketing materials and so on) follow inclusive grammar protocols. Of course, you need to make your decisions based on the rhetorical situation and context. This is where your rhetorical skills come into play along with your knowledge of grammar.","rendered":"<p>Other complicated rules to consider are those that vary not just based on the particular group to whom you are writing, but also those that are open to debate. A good example of this sort of rule is the case of what is now called \u201csingular they.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you were learning English grammar in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries (the 1700s or the 1800s), you would have been taught that a <strong>pronoun<\/strong> must agree with its antecedent. In plain English: a <strong>pronoun<\/strong> is a word that stands in for a <strong>noun<\/strong>\u2014it needs to match that noun in some important ways. This rule leads to the following sorts of examples:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<ul>\n<li>CORRECT: The <strong>box<\/strong> is heavy, so <strong>it<\/strong> will break the table. (\u201cIt\u201d agrees with \u201cbox\u201d in that it is singular in number\u2014there is ONE box\u2014and it stands in for things, like boxes but not people.)<\/li>\n<li>CORRECT: <strong>Students<\/strong> must bring <strong>their<\/strong> books to class. (\u201cTheir\u201d agrees with \u201cstudents\u201d in that there is more than one student and they\/their\/them stands in for people.)<\/li>\n<li>\n<div>\n<p>CORRECT: <strong>Thomas<\/strong> doesn\u2019t like to read; <strong>he<\/strong> prefers to play cricket. (\u201cHe\u201d agrees with \u201cThomas\u201d in that it is singular in number and gender. Thomas is traditionally a male name, and he is a pronoun for male people.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>So far, so good. But what if you want to refer to one person in a group that includes both men and women and some non-binary people?<\/p>\n<p>According to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century rules, you would be given the following examples:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<ul>\n<li>ERROR: <strong>Each<\/strong> <strong>writer<\/strong> must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>their<\/strong> wit and imagination.<\/li>\n<li>CORRECT: <strong>Each<\/strong> <strong>writer<\/strong> must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>his<\/strong> wit and imagination.<\/li>\n<li>ERROR: <strong>Each<\/strong> <strong>writer<\/strong> must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>her<\/strong> wit and imagination.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>The logic underpinning these examples is that \u201ceach writer\u201d is singular (one writer), so \u201ctheir\u201d is a mistake because it doesn\u2019t agree in number. But what\u2019s wrong with \u201cher\u201d? After all, there were male and female poets in the 1600s and 1700s. Had you asked this question, a teacher might have patiently explained to you that the <strong>male singular pronoun<\/strong> (<strong>he\/his<\/strong>) is universal\u2014it can stand in for a singular male person (like Thomas) or for a generic, neutral human being who might happen to be male or female. The <strong>female singular pronoun<\/strong> can\u2019t do the same thing. Popular thinking at the time was that gender doesn\u2019t matter when it comes to <strong>pronouns<\/strong> in the same way it does in relation to people. \u201cHe\u201d can stand in for any person.<\/p>\n<p>By the twentieth century, feminists had persuaded a lot of people that it is problematic to see the <strong>male pronoun<\/strong> as \u201cuniversal.\u201d If it\u2019s okay to have a singular pronoun stand in for any example of a person, some asked, why does it need to always and only be the male pronoun? Doesn\u2019t this sort of language suggest to women that they don\u2019t really count (much in the same way that terms like \u201cfireman\u201d or \u201cchairman\u201d imply that the jobs we now more commonly refer to as \u201cfirefighter\u201d or \u201cchair\u201d are only for men)? In their efforts to create more <strong>gender inclusive<\/strong> (sometimes also called <strong>gender neutral<\/strong>) language, they offered the following alternatives:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<ul>\n<li>CORRECT: Each writer must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>his or her<\/strong> wit and imagination. (Adding \u201cor her\u201d makes the sentence more gender inclusive, and both \u201chis\u201d and \u201cher\u201d are singular, just like \u201cEach writer.\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>CORRECT: Each writer must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>his\/her<\/strong> wit and imagination. (The slash in \u201chis\/her\u201d here stands in for \u201cor\u201d and thus conveys the same meaning as the previous example\u2014but in a more concise way.)<\/li>\n<li>CORRECT: Each writer must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>her\/his<\/strong> wit and imagination. (The slash in \u201cher\/his\u201d here stands in for \u201cor\u201d and has the same significance as in the previous example\u2014but putting \u201cher\u201d first implies that the male pronoun doesn\u2019t always need to take precedence, much less be seen as universal.)<\/li>\n<li>CORRECT: Each writer must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>her<\/strong> wit and imagination. (Here the pronoun matches the referent in number; both are singular. And if the \u201cgender\u201d of a pronoun doesn\u2019t really matter, then why not use \u201cher\u201d?)<\/li>\n<li>CORRECT: <strong>All writers<\/strong> must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>their<\/strong> wit and imagination. (An easy easy way to make English sentences more gender inclusive is to revise to make the nouns being referred to plural\u2014that way, one can use \u201cthey\/their\u201d: a pronoun that is not only plural but also doesn\u2019t indicate gender. A group of men, a group of women, or a group of men and women can all be referred to as \u201cthey.\u201d)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>For most readers, gender-biased language (such as referring to all people as \u201che\u201d) seems odd, maybe even wrong. But there may still be some debates about which of the \u201ccorrect\u201d options above is best\u2014some find <strong>\u201chis or her<\/strong>\u201d unnecessarily wordy while others find <strong>\u201chis\/her<\/strong>\u201d awkward.<\/p>\n<p>And in the past twenty years or so, truly <strong>gender-neutral<\/strong> singular pronouns have been suggested as a way of allowing writers and speakers to refer to an individual person whose gender is not known or who identifies as non-binary. You might see or hear the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ze, xe, se, ey, vey, ver, tey, e, ou (instead of he or she)<\/li>\n<li>Zim, xem, sie, em, ver, ter, eir, hir (instead of him or her)<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"If you want to see more options and learn more about the history, dating back at least to the nineteenth century, to create a widely accepted gender-neutral singular pronoun in English, read Dennis E. Barron\u2019s article \u201cThe Epicene Pronoun: The Word that Failed\u201d in American Speech 56, no. 2 (1981): 83-97, DOI: 10.2307\/455007 or his more recent article in The Globe and Mail: \u201cThe Canadian Politics\u2014and History\u2014of \u2018He,\u2019 \u2018She\u2019 and \u2018They,\u2019\u201d February 21, 2020, https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/opinion\/article-the-canadian-politics-and-history-of-he-she-and-they\/.\" id=\"return-footnote-307-1\" href=\"#footnote-307-1\" aria-label=\"Footnote 1\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The development that seems most likely to stick is the use of the <strong>existing pronoun \u201cthey\u201d<\/strong> as a <strong>gender-neutral singular<\/strong>. This change means seeing the following examples as correct:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">\n<ul>\n<li>CORRECT: <strong>Each writer<\/strong> must bring to the act of writing poetry <strong>their<\/strong> wit and imagination.<\/li>\n<li>CORRECT: When <strong>a student<\/strong> writes a successful essay, the instructor will ask <strong>them<\/strong> to submit this piece of work for the annual writing award.<\/li>\n<li>CORRECT: <strong>A scientist<\/strong> can get into trouble by being too sure of what <strong>they<\/strong> can do alone.<\/li>\n<li>CORRECT: My friend <strong>Blake<\/strong> takes <strong>their<\/strong> schoolwork very seriously.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>In all of these cases, the <strong>pronoun<\/strong> \u201cthey\u201d (or variations on it like \u201ctheir\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d) refers back to a person (singular) whose gender is unknown and\/or to a person who identifies as non-binary. Depending on your reading experiences, these sentences might seem unremarkable, strange, or even examples of grammatical errors.<\/p>\n<p>But <strong>singular they<\/strong> is not only becoming more widely accepted but also allowed (and increasingly endorsed) by some important style guides for academic and journalistic writing such as <a href=\"https:\/\/apastyle.apa.org\/style-grammar-guidelines\/grammar\/singular-they\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">APA<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/reporting-editing\/2017\/ap-style-change-singular-they-is-acceptable-in-limited-cases\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AP<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/style.mla.org\/using-singular-they\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MLA<\/a>.<a class=\"footnote\" title=\"See, for example, the following statements issued by these organisations: \u201cSingular They,\u201d APA Style, American Psychological Association, accessed September 14, 2020, https:\/\/apastyle.apa.org\/style-grammar-guidelines\/grammar\/singular-they; Karen Hare, \u201cAP Style Change: Singular They is Acceptable in \u2018Limited Cases\u2019,\u201d Poynter, March 24, 2017, https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/reporting-editing\/2017\/ap-style-change-singular-they-is-acceptable-in-limited-cases\/; \u201cHow Do I Use Singular They?\u201d MLA Style Center, Modern Language Association, March 4, 2020, https:\/\/style.mla.org\/using-singular-they\/.\" id=\"return-footnote-307-2\" href=\"#footnote-307-2\" aria-label=\"Footnote 2\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[2]<\/sup><\/a> A further example is that most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uvic.ca\/communicationsmarketing\/assets\/docs\/style-guide-web.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">university style guides<\/a><a class=\"footnote\" title=\"By way of example, check out the University of Victoria\u2019s \u201cEditorial Style Guide\u201d: https:\/\/www.uvic.ca\/communicationsmarketing\/assets\/docs\/style-guide-web.pdf\" id=\"return-footnote-307-3\" href=\"#footnote-307-3\" aria-label=\"Footnote 3\"><sup class=\"footnote\">[3]<\/sup><\/a> (for writing internal memos, marketing materials and so on) follow inclusive grammar protocols. Of course, you need to make your decisions based on the rhetorical situation and context. This is where your rhetorical skills come into play along with your knowledge of grammar.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"before-footnotes clear\" \/><div class=\"footnotes\"><ol><li id=\"footnote-307-1\">If you want to see more options and learn more about the history, dating back at least to the nineteenth century, to create a widely accepted gender-neutral singular pronoun in English, read Dennis E. Barron\u2019s article \u201cThe Epicene Pronoun: The Word that Failed\u201d in <em>American Speech<\/em> 56, no. 2 (1981): 83-97, DOI: 10.2307\/455007 or his more recent article in <em>The Globe and Mail<\/em>: \u201cThe Canadian Politics\u2014and History\u2014of \u2018He,\u2019 \u2018She\u2019 and \u2018They,\u2019\u201d February 21, 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/opinion\/article-the-canadian-politics-and-history-of-he-she-and-they\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/opinion\/article-the-canadian-politics-and-history-of-he-she-and-they\/<\/a>. <a href=\"#return-footnote-307-1\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 1\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-307-2\">See, for example, the following statements issued by these organisations: \u201cSingular They,\u201d APA Style, American Psychological Association, accessed September 14, 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/apastyle.apa.org\/style-grammar-guidelines\/grammar\/singular-they\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/apastyle.apa.org\/style-grammar-guidelines\/grammar\/singular-they<\/a>; Karen Hare, \u201cAP Style Change: Singular They is Acceptable in \u2018Limited Cases\u2019,\u201d <em>Poynter<\/em>, March 24, 2017, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/reporting-editing\/2017\/ap-style-change-singular-they-is-acceptable-in-limited-cases\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/reporting-editing\/2017\/ap-style-change-singular-they-is-acceptable-in-limited-cases\/<\/a>; \u201cHow Do I Use Singular They?\u201d MLA Style Center, Modern Language Association, March 4, 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/style.mla.org\/using-singular-they\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/style.mla.org\/using-singular-they\/<\/a>. <a href=\"#return-footnote-307-2\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 2\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><li id=\"footnote-307-3\">By way of example, check out the University of Victoria\u2019s \u201cEditorial Style Guide\u201d: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.uvic.ca\/communicationsmarketing\/assets\/docs\/style-guide-web.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.uvic.ca\/communicationsmarketing\/assets\/docs\/style-guide-web.pdf<\/a> <a href=\"#return-footnote-307-3\" class=\"return-footnote\" aria-label=\"Return to footnote 3\">&crarr;<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"author":20,"menu_order":6,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":["erin-kelly","sara-humphreys","natalie-boldt","nancy-ami"],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[61,62,63,60],"license":[],"class_list":["post-307","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless","contributor-erin-kelly","contributor-nancy-ami","contributor-natalie-boldt","contributor-sara-humphreys"],"part":45,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/307\/revisions\/476"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/45"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/307\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=307"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/whywriteguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}