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Purdue OWL News for April 20, 2004
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The Purdue OWL Staff
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Apr 20, 2004 10:29 PDT
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The Purdue OWL News
April 20, 2004
Welcome to the Purdue OWL News!
The Purdue OWL News is an online newsletter about happenings in the
Purdue University Writing Lab and the Purdue University Online Writing
Lab (OWL). You can visit our website at
<http://owl.english.purdue.edu>. To subscribe to the newsletter, visit
<http://www.topica.com/lists/purdueowlnews/subscribe/>. To unsubscribe
from the newsletter, click on the link at the bottom of this email.
Writing Question of the Week
I was glad for the clarification of uses of they and their in last
week's OWL News. But it brought to mind a pet peeve of mine, which is
using "they" and "their" and "them" when referring to a singular person.
For example, "When you ask a person for directions, they might not be
able to tell you clearly where to go." I realize that people often use
this as a non-specific, neutral singular because it is cumbersome to use
"he or she" all the time. However, I find it confusing and off-putting
when I hear a singular person referred to in the plural. Recently I read
that grammarians are now saying it is acceptable. Please say it isn't
so!
Answer
Actually, they has a long history of being used as a non-specific
neutral singular pronoun, as this quotation from the Oxford English
Dictionary explains:
Often used in reference to a singular noun made universal by every, any,
no, etc., or applicable to one of either sex (= ‘he or she’).
See Jespersen Progress in Lang. 24. 26 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531)
163b, Yf..a psalme scape ony persone, or a lesson, or else yt they omyt
one verse or twayne. 1535 FISHER Ways perf. Relig. ix. Wks. (1876) 383
He neuer forsaketh any creature vnlesse they before haue forsaken them
selues. 1749 FIELDING Tom Jones VIII. xi, Every Body fell a laughing, as
how could they help it. 1759 CHESTERFIELD Lett. IV. ccclv. 170 If a
person is born of a..gloomy temper..they cannot help it. 1835 WHEWELL in
Life (1881) 173 Nobody can deprive us of the Church, if they would. 1858
BAGEHOT Lit. Stud. (1879) II. 206 Nobody fancies for a moment that they
are reading about anything beyond the pale of ordinary propriety. 1866
RUSKIN Crown Wild Olives 38 (1873) 44 Now, nobody does anything well
that they cannot help doing. 1874 [see THEMSELVES 5].
So while this usage can beconfusing (and I personally would prefer
seeing sentences reworded to avoid the confusion), it's not a recent
development; people have been using they in that manner for centuries.
It certainly has become a controversial usage in recent years, since
many people assume that it is a recent formation and declare that it
must be a by-product of efforts to use more gender-neutral language in
speaking and writing. While that may be fueling the popularity of the
usage now, the usage itself does have a long pedigree in English.
So I can't "say it isn't so," but I can encourage you to think of
creative ways of wording sentences to avoid the usage if you find it
painful.
(We are sure that many of our readers have opinions on the use of they
as a singular pronoun; we invite you to share them with us for inclusion
in a future newsletter.)
The OWL Help Nest
Each week we'll publish a request for advice or information. If you wish
to contribute a response to the topic, please write to us at
owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu. Please let us know if you want us to
include your name and/or your email address when we publish your
information or advice. The following week, we'll publish the best
information and advice that we receive in the newsletter. If you have a
question for our readers, please send it to us at
<owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu>.
Last Week's Question
I wish to expand my awareness on the proper usage of Him and His. Do we
say, "a great friend of his" or "a great friend of him"? With "her" the
convention seems pretty simple for it being the only option.
Answer to Last Week's Question
I would never write "a great friend of her". But a friend of hers is
some one who sort of belongs to her, in a friendly kind of way. It seems
that his and hers are possessive kinds of words. They imply ownership,
or at least possession, which is 9/10s of ownership, isn't it? But a him
is someone that it is done to, (toward) or someone that it is taken
(from) like not done to, sort of an object of some verb or maybe a
preposition. One way to remember, I think, is to remember how little
kids think. "Mommy says to be nice TO HIM (direction) or he will take
HIS BALL (possession) back to HIS HOUSE (possession) and then we won't
HAVE HIM (object of verb) or HIS BALL (possession) and we'll be sorry we
were mean TO HIM (object). Maybe this will help Him (object of verb) or
Her (object of verb) remember. It helps, too , to note that if it were a
girl and you would call it herS, then it is a hiS. There is a technical
answer to the writer's question, but this is one way to remember it.
Besides, HIS (possession) mother is not going to LET HIM (object of
verb) play with us if our grammar is poor. -- Betty Nye Lendway
Further Answers
We've received some further responses on the use of differing date
formats.
Just a quick comment on the day format question. The Day-Month-Year is
also used by the US military, not just various expatriates. -- Tom Coyle
(and various other readers)
We've also received another comment about what one calls an e-mail
"penpal."
I believe that cyberpal or webpal would make sense in this case. What do
you think? -- Fitzroy Williams, Grayson, GA
This Week's Questions
Every time I think I have the difference between wake/woke etc. and
awake etc. straight, something comes up to confuse me all over again.
What is the difference in their usages? Is there an easy way to
remember the difference?
I've consulted several people and dictionaries but have not found a
satisfactory answer. Please tell me: How did the dot at the end of the
sentence (the period) get its name? I have a British education and
learned that the dot at the end of the sentence is called a "full stop"
which makes sense as the sentence comes to an end or a stop. Doesn't the
word "period" denote a portion/period of time? Don't laugh, but this
punctuation has plagued me for years!
What's Happening On OWL
OWL Eye on... New PowerPoint Presentations
We've added two PowerPoint presentations to our OWL this week. These
presentations were written by Mitch Simpson and are designed to be used
by in cooperative extension programs, particularly in agricultural
economics. However, the principles described in the PowerPoint
prsentations can be useful for any program that works with the public.
Principles of Persuasion
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/pp/Persuading.ppt
Writing the Impact Report
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/pp/ImpactReport.ppt
What's Happening in the Writing Lab
OWL Eye on ... Last Week of Classes
Next week is the last week of classes. The Writing Lab is often busy
during the last week of classes, so please call us at 494-3723 or drop
by Heavilon 226 as soon as possible to schedule your free half-hour
tutorial! We will not be offering tutorials during finals week, but the
Lab will be open for last-minute studying and computer use.
Final Thoughts
Thanks for reading our newsletter. You can email us at any time at
owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu. You can also email the OWL coordinator,
Karl Stolley, at <coordi-@owl.english.purdue.edu> and the webmaster,
Erin Karper, at <webma-@owl.english.purdue.edu>. (Erin and Karl take
turns writing the newsletter.)
If you received this newsletter as a forward and would like to get your
own subscription, visit
<http://www.topica.com/lists/purdueowlnews/subscribe/> to subscribe.
This newsletter is copyright (c) 2004 the Purdue University Writing Lab
and Purdue University. Purdue's OWL is located at
<http://owl.english.purdue.edu>.
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