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Anonymous Posted 20 years ago
Grammar
Grammar Help
"By drawing up individual timetables, I helped persuade each member to take ownership of his tasks." Can I change "his" for "their"? Trying to make the sentence gender neutral and still be grammatically correct.
Top answer
Yes, their is an acceptable substitute for 'his or her', which sounds quite clumsy in comparison. If you are worried about the clash between each member and their,you could re-phrase that part to read I helped persuade the members to take ownership of their tasks, (or their own tasks).
- Yes, their is an acceptable substitute for 'his or her', which sounds quite clumsy in comparison.
- If you are worried about the clash between each member and their,you could re-phrase that part to read I helped persuade the members to take ownership of their tasks, (or their own tasks).
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2 Answers
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Yes, their is an acceptable substitute for 'his or her', which sounds quite clumsy in comparison.
If you are worried about the clash between each member and their,you could re-phrase that part to read I helped persuade the members to take ownership of their tasks, (or their own tasks).
If you are worried about the clash between each member and their,you could re-phrase that part to read I helped persuade the members to take ownership of their tasks, (or their own tasks).
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If this is to be a written statement, it would be better to re-cast the sentence in the plural:
By drawing up individual timetables, I helped persuade all members to take responsibility for their tasks.
By drawing up individual timetables, I helped persuade all members to take responsibility for their tasks.
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