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From: sunny@sun.uucp
Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.women
Subject: Re: Gender-specific responses to s/he
Message-ID: <1914@sun.uucp>
Date: Thu, 3-Jan-85 15:03:27 EST
Article-I.D.: sun.1914
Posted: Thu Jan  3 15:03:27 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Jan-85 01:56:52 EST
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Xref: watmath net.nlang:2312 net.women:3959

> > Generic Versus Specific Inclusion of Women in Language: Effects on Recall
> > 
> > Mary Crawford and Linda English
> > 
> > J. Psycholinguistic Research, 1984, 13, 373
> > 
> > ...  College student subjects read essays that were identical
> > except for the use of "generic" terms versus those that deliberately
> > include women (he/she, his/her, people).  In experiment 1, the Generic
> > essay form led to better recall of the essay's factual content by male
> > subjects, while the Specific form produced better recall by females.
> 
> Wonderful.  So no matter how I write, I will be discriminating
> against *somebody*, in that what I write will be harder for females
> to grasp if I use generic terms, and harder for males to grasp if
> I use he/she.
> 
> Gary Samuelson
> ittvax!bunker!garys

Try using "their" whether referring to one generic person or many persons:
it's easier to read than he/she or his/her, and is gender non-specific.
				Sunny
-- 
{ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!sun!sunny