Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utcsrgv.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!west From: west@utcsrgv.UUCP (Thomas L. West) Newsgroups: net.nlang,net.women Subject: Re: Gender-specific responses to s/he Message-ID: <650@utcsrgv.UUCP> Date: Thu, 10-Jan-85 11:57:09 EST Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.650 Posted: Thu Jan 10 11:57:09 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 10-Jan-85 12:37:19 EST References: <1315@dciem.UUCP> <643@bunker.UUCP> <1067@hcrvx1.UUCP> Reply-To: west@utcsrgv.UUCP (Thomas L. West) Distribution: net Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto Lines: 18 Summary: In article <1067@hcrvx1.UUCP> tracy@hcrvx1.UUCP (Tracy Tims) writes: >Somehow I suspect that if the test was run using "she" as well we'd find >that women could relate even better to that. I prefer the form that gives >everyone an even chance. Writing the "he/she" form is not descrimination >against men, it is simply non-preferential treatment. > > Tracy Tims {linus,allegra,decvax}!watmath!... Actually, I think that using "she" would probably *increase* the recall rate for everybody. Using she (or she or he instead of he or she) is so unusual that I find I tend to remember the occurance and the information related in the article. Maybe it's just personal, but these sort of 'suprises' tend to help recollection. (Apparently there's one prof at U of T (in psych, of course) who uses this to some effect to get important points over.) Tom West { allegra cornell decvax ihnp4 linus utzoo }!utcsrgv!west