Page 777 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

singular singular
Each of the team members has her own particular strength.

Pronouns and Gender Fairness

Gender fairness means using gender-neutral terms such as server,

police officer, and firefighter. It means not stereotyping professions:

Gary Kubach is a nurse, not a male nurse; Sarita Gray is a doctor, not

a woman doctor. Naturally, gender fairness also includes avoiding

descriptions of women solely in terms of their looks or of men solely in
terms of their bank accounts. Those things are fairly simple. The area

of gender fairness and pronouns, however, requires more thought.

Using he or she or his or her is often awkward, and constructions such

as he/she or (s)he are downright ungraceful. How, then, can a writer’s

language be unbiased, graceful, and grammatically correct, all at the
same time? There are several possible solutions.

Example of Incorrect Pronoun-Antecedent

Agreement

singular plural
Nobody has received their grades from the last term yet.

This sentence contains an error in pronoun agreement. The singular

indefinite pronoun nobody does not agree with the plural pronoun