** Sometime around 13:40 -0500 12/12/98, Sue Paduano said: >On Fri, 11 Dec 1998, Joe Clark wrote: >> >> By that logic, no writing other than personal correspondence would >> ever be subject to change or evolution, because everything else you >> read wasn't *meant* to insult you. Assuming the reader is male is a >> dangerous practice. (Or female.) There are rather limited >> exceptions-- pregnancy, prostate cancer, that sort of thing. >> >Let me jump in here. I agree with Joe. And I have a BA in psychology. Let me jump in here. I agree with Dan. And I have an MS in electrical engineering. >One of the formost things that wastaught to us is to remove all personal >pronouns, even in writing, unless you "know" the person and what gender >they before writing them or addressing them. One of the forEmost things that Strunk (of Strunk & White) tells us is that it is not so much bad English as bad _style_ to use a plural pronoun with a singular antecedent. ref. <http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk/strunk3.html> (Skip to the paragraph with the heading "They.") Surely, Sue, you don't want to be perceived as having bad style, do you? I mean, just think of the rumors that would circulate ... >A lot of manuels in psychology, are written in the third person >to avoid insulting anyone. Being that English is his second language, one could hardly use Manuel as a basis for English grammar and usage. ;-) Now c'mon, kids ... when I first read Michael Johnson's post on this subject, I kept waiting for the punch line. When I reached the end of the post, and was still sans punch line, I realized for the first time that he was *serious* about that question. Perhaps we can view this as a tribute to LISTSERV that we apparently have no better nits to pick beyond Eric's technically-correct grasp and use of the English language in server messages -- but couldn't we just fake it and *pick* something that might at least deceive a newcomer to this list into thinking that we occasionally discuss serious issues? __________________________________________________________________________ Vince Sabio Boy & His Sabre: <http://www.insane.net/tsc/Vince/> [log in to unmask] Stop Internet Spam! <http://www.cauce.org/>