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Some Nonsexist Writing Guidelines

Some Nonsexist Writing Guidelines image
Parent Issue
Month
October
Year
1989
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
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Agenda Publications
OCR Text
  • Speak of people as persons irrespective of their sex.
  • lf it is necessary to use sex-specific words, maintain sexual symmetry in their treatment. (Ask yourself if you would say the same thing in the same way about a person of the opposite sex).
  • Watch for hidden bias. Ex: Seventy people were killed in the derailment yesterday including 14 women.
  • lf a quotation is sexist you can paraphrase, replace sexist words with bracketed substitutes, use [sic] to call attention to the sexist word, quote only part of it, or omit the quotation. 
  • Refer to things as "it". 
  • Identify women by their own names, not their connections to husband, son, or father.
  • Avoid changing official titles (use [sic] if necessary). Ex: Manpower was an agency of the Department of Labor.
  • The use of the third person singular pronoun "he" as a generic is to be strictly avoided. (Rewrite the sentence in the plural or second person, recast in the passive voice, omit the pronoun entirely, replace the masculino pronoun with an article or noun).
  • "Man" refers to men, "human being" to men and women.
  • Replace vague sex-linked descriptor s with thoughtful words that describe an individual instead of a member of a set. (If one says, "I found her feminine charm appealing"; what precisely was appealing? Was she polite, warm, welcoming, quiet, gracious?)
  • Avoid feminine suffixes such as -ess.-ette, and - trix. If the individual's sex is critical to your material, use the adjectives "male" and "female."
  • Words used for name-calling (bitch, fag, bastard) are generally sex-linked in some way, and are therefore to be avoided.
  • Letter salutations such as "Dear Sir" should be altered to be inclusive to women. Ex: Dear Madame or Sir, Greetings, To whom it may concern, Dear Friend, Dear Editor Walesa.
  • Use "fellow, king, lord, and master" only in their narrowest, male-defined terms. Ex: landlord, Masters Degree.

- based on entries from the "The Nonsexist Wordfinder: A Dictionary of Gender-Free Usage" by Rosalie Maggio, Beacon Press 1989.

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