Gender-neutral language

It is now well established that formal writing should be composed in gender-neutral terms.

One way of doing this is to use he or she (or she or he), coupled with his or her (or her or his) as appropriate.

Another frequently encountered solution is to write s/he (coupled again with her or his), but this has at least three disadvantages compared with he or she and she or he:

it has no obvious pronunciation except for ess stroke he, which not only betrays its origins as a non-word but also has the additional weakness of leaving the masculine form as the only one which is recognisable, which in turn means that this formula is not quite gender-neutral;

it leaves no choice as to whether the masculine or the feminine is placed first;

it has no associated forms corresponding to his or her (or her or his).

Some people might add a fourth objection, namely that it is grossly inelegant, but this would be nothing more than a matter of taste.

Fortunately, applying the mongoose principle provides a very simple formula that will almost always avoid the problem: write in the plural. Thus

a student will receive his or her marks within three weeks of the end of the examination period

becomes

students will receive their marks within three weeks of the end of the examination period.

The rewritten version is not only simpler and more elegant than the original, but it also has the advantage of containing nothing which could offend anyone.

Some people take a halfway house approach to the plural solution, which produces:

a student will receive their marks within three weeks of the end of the examination period.

While this usage has a pedigree stretching far beyond the origins of political correctness (with examples being found even in the works of Shakespeare), its mixture of singular and plural forms (a student and their) nevertheless grates on many an educated ear and has nothing to recommend it over the straightforward plural solution.