Tuesday, October 22, 2019

The Singular "They" in Academic Writing




It’s important as academics that we acknowledge people’s preferred pronouns, but how do we handle this in our research? Is the singular “they” acceptable? The community of non-gender- conforming persons is pushing for the use of gender-inclusive or neutral pronouns. For many years the feminist community has pushed push to abolish the use of the universal “he.” How should we as scholars approach the pronoun issue in our scholarly writing? Both the MLA and the APA have updated their style manuals to incorporate the use of the singular “they.”

The 7th edition of the APA advises researchers to “respect participants’ preferences” (APA Publication Manual, 2019, p. 121). It’s important to remember that transgender people use the pronoun that matches the identity of their gender expression, so the singular “they” is appropriate only when referring to non-gender-binary individuals. When referring to a person whose gender is unknown or not relevant to the subject matter, both APA and MLA suggest alternatives to the use of the singular “they.” According to the APA, preferred alternatives include:
·         Making the subject of the sentence plural
·         Using an article such as “a,” “an,” or “the” instead
·         Reconstructing the sentence so that pronouns are not needed
·         Combining both singular pronouns, “he and she,” “his or her,” but avoiding “his/her," when the gender of the subjects is known

The MLA advises, like the APA, that researchers respect the wishes of individuals they write about. Outside of this specific context, however, the MLA instructs that the use of the plural pronoun “they” is not to be used in formal writing and recommends rewording sentences for agreement in number, recasting a sentence so the pronoun is no longer needed, or using plural constructions. Both organizations make it clear that writers should only use the singular “they” in specific circumstances, i.e., when it’s not possible to rework sentences.
Like MLA and APA, the most recent 17th ed. of the Chicago Manual of Style suggests nine alternative constructions to the singular “they,” which can be found in Section 5.225, and discourages its use. However, Section 5.48 states that a person’s preferences should be respected.

Another viable option, of course, is to use the hypothetical “one,” but this option to me seems unnecessarily esoteric and stilted, significantly altering the writer’s tone.

 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of the singular “they” occurred in the 14th century, documenting that the pressing need for a singular gender-neutral pronoun in the English language is not new. The issue certainly runs deeper than grammatical correctness or formality in academic settings. We must acknowledge that standards are created and reinforced by institutions in power, like the academy, and the elevation of certain usages of language to “standard” conveys acceptance or resistance to social change. Of the three style manuals, the MLA seems to be the most accepting. For more information see sources below:



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