Students lose marks for using 'he': Universities penalise undergrads for 'offensive' gender phrase - Sensationalist Headlines

[QUOTE=DaMastez;52054048]"They" can be vague though, since it can refer to either a single person, several people, or people in general. Within context is generally isn't an issue, but I still wish there was a gender neutral term specifically for when one is referring to a single person.[/QUOTE] Would thou work? I think it's a pretty good word.

And I thought my middle Tennessee english teacher handing out write offs for saying the word "ain't" was ridiculous

I almost always use "they/them/their/they're" if I don't know their gender, but manpower/mankind/man made etc.? Come on.

All this thread made me realize is that I naturally use "one/they" habitually. I'm pretty sure it's good form to do so.

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;52054092]I almost always use "they/them/their/they're" if I don't know their gender, but manpower/mankind/man made etc.? Come on.[/QUOTE] Shall we take bets on what date the word "Human" is first touted as being offensive?

[QUOTE=TheTalon;52054089]And I thought my middle Tennessee english teacher handing out write offs for saying the word "ain't" was ridiculous[/QUOTE] That's straight up bad grammar though. And there ain't no excuse for that. The rules for any kind of university level writing are "use the gender neutral pronouns at all times, unless you actually know the gender of a subject". So when referring to a person in the abstract you use they/them/their. When referring to a person who isn't fully known, you use they/them/their. When referring to a person you do know, using they/them/their can't hurt either as long as it sounds right ("Tim Berners Lee is credited with the invention of the World Wide Web, their contribution has been met with many awards" would be likely be fine for example, as would "his" in the place of "their").

[quote]And terms such as 'mankind', 'manpower' and 'manmade' are frowned upon by academics if used in essays.[/quote] Because in a world that's plagued with political and business-related corruption, that's confronted with the inevitably of climate change and ecological collapse, where there are [i]actual[/i] civil rights issues with race, religion, immigration, and sex/gender that need to be discussed and forcefully dealt with... [i]this shit[/i] is what really matters lol.

[QUOTE=Duck M.;52054098]All this thread made me realize is that I naturally use "one/they" habitually. I'm pretty sure it's good form to do so.[/QUOTE] "One" is a fun one to use, I'm sure I used it in my literature review for my third year project and was commended on it. [editline]3rd April 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Govna;52054123]Because in a world that's plagued with political and business-related corruption, that's confronted with the inevitably of climate change and ecological collapse, where there are [i]actual[/i] civil rights issues with race, religion, immigration, and sex/gender that need to be discussed and forcefully dealt with... [i]this shit[/i] is what really matters lol.[/QUOTE] It's not that it "really matters", but that formal writing is very, very specific in terminology.

[QUOTE=TheTalon;52054103]Shall we take bets on what date the word "Human" is first touted as being offensive?[/QUOTE] I'm sure eventually the word 'man' itself will be considered too offensive and replaced with xy-chromosomal anthropomorphic organism

[QUOTE=Killajax;52053843]I can't help but think Tumblr may have been involved with this.[/QUOTE] It wasn't. The world exists outside of social media.

[QUOTE=BlackMageMari;52054074]Would thou work? I think it's a pretty good word.[/QUOTE] thou is the singular "you" though, and it's still used that way in some parts of the world thou, thy, thine, etc

I think this is great news and people should stop getting offended over little things that don't matter.

[QUOTE=Raidyr;52054178]I think this is [B]terrible[/B] news and people should stop getting offended over little things that don't matter.[/QUOTE] All I have to do is change a word and your statement is arguing for the complete opposite thing.

[QUOTE=Raidyr;52054178]I think this is great news and people should stop getting offended over little things that don't matter.[/QUOTE] The only people getting offended over little things that don't matter are the idiots getting offended by words with 'man' in them.

To be fair it's bad grammar to use he/she when you don't know the gender/no gender is implied. I'm always surprised when I see he/she in a context where no specific person is mentioned.

[QUOTE=Trumple;52054218]To be fair it's bad grammar to use he/she when you don't know the gender/no gender is implied. I'm always surprised when I see he/she in a context where no specific person is mentioned.[/QUOTE] I don't know why people are arguing over he/she and they, it's not the part that changed, only the dailymail is moaning about that even though it's not relevant.

[QUOTE=Raidyr;52054178]I think this is great news and people should stop getting offended over little things that don't matter.[/QUOTE] The hypocrisy of posts like this astounds me. Really? [b]Really?[/b]

I'm glad this retardation isn't common here yet.

[QUOTE=Raidyr;52054178]I think this is great news and people should stop getting offended over little things that don't matter.[/QUOTE] i mean if people weren't offended by little things that didn't matter this wouldn't exist either??? this is for university writing, which writing with "they or them" with gender neutral terms should be considered "professional" but they instead decided to say it's "offensive" to write with "he or she" rather than it's unprofessional to write like that if you're offended by someone using he or she or mankind or manpower in a paper you're clearly looking for something to be outraged at(because believe me, there are far more worthy things to deserve outrage), which is far more stupid than people being offended at the degradation of universities marking people down for being "offensive" rather than "unprofessional", because it shouldn't matter if your paper is offensive or not, what matters is how well written it is

[QUOTE=El Periodista;52053287]Also working on my Master's (in journalism, undergrad also in journalism), and there are certain fields where word use is very important. Everything I've written professionally has had to comply with AP style for newspapers and Chicago for magazines. Class work is usually MLA, sometimes Chicago. I personally don't see how this is really any different than making a class adhere to the rules of any existing writing standard.[/QUOTE] Formatting is completely different from subjective restriction of certain words. Ofcourse MLA, AP, and Chicago have a basis in making things easier to read and flow. The other is a fight on if the word "Mankind" is too offensive to people, so you should receive a lower grade for it, which is just ridiculous.

[QUOTE=Sobotnik;52052313]it used to be that "man" was a gender neutral phrase, although that eventually changed for whatever reason and now people are busy rewriting the older terms to fit in with the sensibilities of this particular century[/QUOTE] I lost points on a paper because I used "man" to refer to humanity, to which the TA who graded it felt compelled to write a hand written paragraph explaining that it wasn't just men who defined history. What the fuck.

To everyone griping along with "Don't you GET IT? GENDER NEUTRAL WRITING IS PROFESSIONAL!!!!" [quote]And terms such as 'mankind', 'manpower' and 'manmade' are frowned upon by academics if used in essays.[/quote] Please explain to me, in 250 words or less, 1) how the words manpower and manmade are gendered and not gender-neutral already, and 2) if they are, an equal gender-neutral synonym that is similarly succinct

[QUOTE=Crumpet;52053003] The rest of the demands seem fair enough. Can you disagree with using neutral pronouns if the gender is unknown? That surely doesn't require the 'arbiters of correct language' to smite you down, it's basic English.[/QUOTE] Gender pronouns should just be written as whatever makes sense. I have no problems with this area except forcing the usage of "They" when it starts to get confusing on singular/plural meaning. Use whatever you want on this, but it probably be easier for the majority of people to understand "that person" then "Xir" or whatever constructed gender-neutral people rarely use.

[QUOTE=TheTalon;52054103]Shall we take bets on what date the word "Human" is first touted as being offensive?[/QUOTE] The same day gay marriage leads to the legalisation of bestiality.

[QUOTE=UncleJimmema;52054328]I lost points on a paper because I used "man" to refer to humanity, to which the TA who graded it felt compelled to write a hand written paragraph explaining that it wasn't just men who defined history. What the fuck.[/QUOTE] I guess all my professors, including the female ones, are sexist cause I have never received such notations when dealing in History essays.

[QUOTE=UncleJimmema;52054328]I lost points on a paper because I used "man" to refer to humanity, to which the TA who graded it felt compelled to write a hand written paragraph explaining that it wasn't just men who defined history. What the fuck.[/QUOTE] it's really prevalent at the UMN and it's killing my drive to even continue school uni is supposed to teach you how to speak as an individual and then instead you're surrounded by a bunch of idiots circle jerking on how they'll fight the system(being in CLA makes you an individual whom is not part of the system right?) i can't even give a moderate opinion(having any kind of police that are well trained and funded?) without being shouted at by a bunch of anarchists who don't even have an argument in the first place even trying to date a uni student you'll find them talking about how "FREEDOM OF SPEECH SHOULD BE LIMitED"

[QUOTE=TheTalon;52054103]Shall we take bets on what date the word "Human" is first touted as being offensive?[/QUOTE] When robots gain true sentience and/or when we discover other sentient life.

Getting offended about "mankind" is just as stupid as when they tried to get rid of "master/slave terminology" for hard drives.

[QUOTE=TFA;52054462]Getting offended about "mankind" is just as stupid as when they tried to get rid of "master/slave terminology" for hard drives.[/QUOTE] That was like one dude and it went fucking nowhere other than becoming a bit of an in joke lmao. Anyone doing it after that initial pull request was almost certainly taking the piss.

[QUOTE=TFA;52054462]Getting offended about "mankind" is just as stupid as when they tried to get rid of "master/slave terminology" for hard drives.[/QUOTE] My Hardware teacher is always pointing out we're not suppose to be use Manpower anymore in technical reports, but she still uses the term master/slave, guessing because it is a technical term.