CONTENTS FEATURE: Gender-neutral terminology reflects well on everyone GRAMMAR COACH: Fielding your questions FINDER'S FEE: Recommend a friend—and earn up to $500 FEATURE: Gender-neutral terminology reflects well on everyone      A discussion board on a Web site sought answers to this riddle: A father and his son were riding their bicycles when they were struck by a bus. The father died of his injuries; the son was alive but in serious condition when he arrived by ambulance at the hospital. Stunned upon seeing the boy, the emergency room physician on duty said, "He is my son." So then, who was that doctor?      One of the respondents replied, "The doctor is his stepfather."      He had not considered the possibility that the surgeon may have been female — the boy's mother — as several other respondents properly did.      Decades have passed since the movement to purge sexism from our language and thinking first gained prominence. The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing by Casey Miller and Kate Swift has been in circulation since 1988. Miller, Swift and other proponents have urged elimination of unwarranted gender-specific pronouns (for example, gratuitous use of "he" or "him" in reference to both males and females) and gender-specific occupational titles including "fireman," "stewardess" and "postman." In their place emerged gender-neutral equivalents — firefighter, flight attendant and mail carrier.      Some substitutions are not that easy to make, however, resulting in terminology that some people continue to find questionable.      EditPros News reader Anna G. wrote to ask, "I'm wondering, what do you think of gender-neutral language — for example using gender-neutral titles (such as 'chair' in place of 'chairman'), and using 'they' in place of 'he' or 'she,' and using 'Ms.' in place of 'Miss' or 'Mrs.' Do you approve of these innovations in particular, and gender-neutral language in general, or not? Please post your response online, so that everyone can read it, not just me. I want to have an authority on the subject to refer others to."      Anna, we regard adoption of gender-neutral language as a mark of respect for equality. After all, EditPros is owned in equal shares by one female and one male. The Welsh actor renowned for playing Hamlet and King Arthur always was known professionally as Richard Burton — never Rick or Richie. That was his preference, and the public and the news media respected that wish. Workers in other careers deserve the same level of respect for their names and their positions. The person who drives around town in that little motorized cart making yellow chalk marks on vehicle tires and issuing tickets for parking violations likely would be offended at being called a "meter maid" — particularly if he's male. That's a parking enforcement officer.      The terms "chairman" and "chairwoman" are still viable, as long as they're appropriate for the individuals holding such positions. For instances in which the gender of the officeholder is unclear, the term "chairperson" is a perfectly legitimate word that has been in the American lexicon since 1971, according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. The term "chair" also is considered acceptable, although applying the same word to a person as to a piece of furniture strikes some people as odd.      An otherwise well-written passage can undermine your best intentions if you've failed to purge it of inadvertent sexist language. Many gender-specific descriptions imply diminished capability; for example the old-fashioned term "aviatrix" for a female pilot suggested that only a male could be called an aviator. Gender-neutral terms eliminate that stigma. Here are some gender-specific terms and examples of gender-neutral equivalents: ACTRESS: actor BUSINESSMAN: business owner, business executive CAMERAMAN: photographer CONGRESSMAN: congressional representative DRAFTSMAN: technical artist, drafting professional FISHERMAN: fishing enthusiast FOREMAN: supervisor FOREFATHERS: ancestors GUNMAN: shooter MAIDEN VOYAGE: first or inaugural voyage MANHOLE COVER: utility access cover MANMADE: synthetic, manufactured, machine-made MANNED: staffed UNMANNED: automated MIDDLEMAN: intermediary MOTHER EARTH: Earth MOTHER NATURE: nature NEWSMAN: reporter POLICEWOMAN / POLICEMAN: police officer POSTMAN: mail carrier. SEAMSTRESS: garment maker, tailor      Those are the easy ones. Some terms appear to lack gender-neutral equivalents. "Showmanship" is one such example. "Curmudgeonly," "suffragette" and the legal term "manslaughter" are others.      Certain attempts at gender-neutrality have provoked controversy. Should a jury foreman be called a "foreperson"? Should the term "freshman" be banned and replaced by "first-year student"? And what should become of the scriptural blessing "Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men"?      A few gender-neutral coinages appear contrived, overly self-conscious, or even comical. The proposal to replace "mankind" with "personkind" can induce jeers — and sarcastic suggestions to replace "human" with "huperson." (A more reasonable compromise in place of "mankind" is "humanity.") Should a doorman perhaps be a "door tender"? Should a snowman be called a "snowperson"? Should the word "female" be changed to — "feperson"? After all, some objectors to the word "woman" have endorsed the coinage "woperson" in its place. Others have suggested spelling "women" as "womyn," to eliminate any sense of derivation from the word "men."      Even though the Atlanta Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the National Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony are each led by a female with the title of "concertmaster," some people instead advocate the term "concertmistress" — to which others object because of the extramarital connotation.      Keep in mind, though, that our language is fluid. Look in the Merriam-Webster Online dictionary and you will find an entry for the word "herstory" — defined as "history considered or presented from a feminist viewpoint or with special attention to the experience of women." You'll also find "waitperson" and "waitron" (we're not kidding) as alternatives to the "waiter-waitress" dilemma (which is easily resolved by the term "food server").      The movement to purge the language of gender-specific references is responsible for the introduction of one type of pervasive grammatical error: disagreement between pronouns and their antecedents. A personal pronoun (I, me, my, mine, you, your, yours, he, him, his, she, her, hers, we, us, it, its, our, ours, they, them, their, theirs) must agree in gender and number with its antecedent — the noun or noun phrase to which it refers.      For example, some people would rightfully object to the sentence "An employee should submit his vacation request using the new form" because a gender-specific pronoun ("his") is inappropriate in reference to a gender-neutral subject ("an employee"). When confronted with that type of problem, many people are inclined to substitute the gender-neutral pronoun "their" — which replaces one grammatical error with another one. While the subject "an employee" is singular, the pronoun "their" is plural; most grammarians consider such a disagreement unacceptable. The English language, however, lacks a gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun (other than "it").      One evasive strategy is to replace the plural pronoun with TWO gender-specific pronouns "his or her" (alternatively seen as "his/her"). That almost always results in text that seems suitable for a legal contract but in any other context is convoluted: "An employee should submit his/her vacation request using the new form."      The wisest approach is to rewrite the sentence. You can place the subject and personal pronoun in plural form: "Employees should submit their vacation requests using the new form." That's unambiguous, straightforward and non-sexist. Or you can change the case of the sentence from third person to second person: "Use the new form to submit requests for vacation time."      The courtesy title "Ms." engendered some controversy when the Bulletin of the American Business Writing Association suggested use of that term as early as 1951. By the time of the founding of Ms. Magazine in 1972, the title's use was becoming widespread. People raising objections observed that it is not a proper abbreviation for a term, but rather is a consolidation of two other courtesy titles: "Mrs." (for married women) and "Miss" (denoting single women). Adult males have but a single courtesy title, "Mr.," which does not indicate marital status; "Ms." appeals to many women as a corollary title. Other women do prefer the distinction of "Mrs." and "Miss," and their preferences should be honored.      The quest for gender equality also made an imprint in wedding ceremonies, in which the traditional and clearly imbalanced declaration "I now pronounce you man and wife" evolved into "I now pronounce you husband and wife, "I now pronounce you legally married" or "I now pronounce you spouses for life."      Those people who dispute some gender-neutral terminology probably took some solace when last year's primary election outcome determined that a new title wouldn't have to be contemplated for Bill Clinton as the spouse of a president. GRAMMAR COACH: Fielding your questions 1. John M. wrote:      "I teach English conversation classes in Taiwan. I had a student pose a question to me today that has me a bit perplexed. It is regarding the usage of the apostrophe in contractions of the sort XXX is, which become XXX's.      For example, it is becomes it's (as in, it's hot today), or he is becomes he's (as in, he's a nice guy). The student asked me about using the apostrophe in this manner for proper names. For example, if I mean to write Bill is friendly, can I also write Bill's friendly?      It seems awkward at best, and I assume it is incorrect; however, it does fit the rule as applied to "it's" and "he's." I can't seem to find a clear guide for this instance in any of the resources available to me here. Your opinion would be appreciated." The grammar coach replies:      John, in the English language, the apostrophe serves two purposes: 1. To indicate possession, as in Fred's car, the dog's toy, France's population. 2. To indicate an intentional omission of one or more letters or numerals. Omissions occur in contractions (examples include don't for do not, or who's for who is), or in abbreviations for years or decades (for example, disco was popular in the '70s for 1970s). You offered another valid use: it's hot today, in place of it is hot today.      Common contraction combinations are 'd (for "had," "did," "should" or "would"), 'll (for "shall" or "will"), 'm (for "am"), 'n or 'n' (for "and"), n't (for "not"), 're (for "are"), 's (for "is" or "has"), and 've (for "have"). Examples include: Who'd you call? They're not here yet. She's walking the dog.      Some contractions are irregular; the contracted form of "would not," for example, is won't. "Shall not" becomes shan't.      Contractions may be used with personal pronouns (I'll see you later; you'd better leave now). That's common (there's another contraction — and another) in conversation or casual writing, but contractions should be used sparingly in formal writing. The double contraction she'd've (for "she would have") is used almost exclusively in conversation.      Although no grammatical rules prohibit use of contractions with proper nouns (as in John's on his way), they should be used cautiously because they can be mistaken for possessives. Does Steve's well refer to his health or to his water supply? A revised statement that Steve is well would eliminate potential confusion.      Some contractions are better understood in writing, and may create confusion in speech. A person who announces the floor'll be dry in about 15 minutes may prompt a puzzled question: "Where's a floral bee?" Mention that Jack'll wait outside and you might cause fear: a jackal outside?      When using contractions in writing, try to avoid inadvertently omitting the apostrophe. Otherwise, she'll may become shell, he'll will change into hell, and I'll may become ill. 2. Ariel A. wrote:      "I made a statement [that] 'it's my time to take care of my grandfather after taking care of me when I was young.' My teacher's feedback was that 'it's my time' means 'I will die,' but he didn't mention an alternative to use. I usually use this phrase 'it's my time' but I was not corrected ever since. Is it really my time? Please help!" The grammar coach replies:      Ariel, your teacher's assertion is unjustified. The idiomatic phrase "it's my time" is used in numerous common phrases in reference to excelling ("it's my time to shine"), to taking leadership ("it's my time to step up to the plate"), and to menstruation, as in "it's Carla's time of the month." Someone legitimately could say "it's my time to talk," "it's my time to relax" or "it's my time to fulfill my dream."      If anything, your teacher failed to offer a helpful suggestion about the use of syntactic expletives. The contraction "it's" (it is) is a "syntactic expletive" that occupies the position in the sentence normally reserved for the subject. The true subject of your example sentence is the pronoun "I," which is unstated. Here's a revised version of the sentence: "I now will care for my grandfather, to repay him for taking care of me when I was young."      See http://www.editpros.com/news0808.html for a discussion about syntactic expletives.      Are you perplexed by some aspect of grammar or word usage? Don't be shy! Ask the "grammar coach" at EditPros and we'll try to help—at no charge, just for the sport of it. FINDER'S FEE: Recommend a friend—and earn a finder's fee of up to $500      Do you know of a friend or colleague whose office can benefit from EditPros' services? 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