Here’s what’s up: English lacks a gender-neutral singular personal pronoun! Options like “he or she,” “s/he,” and “ze” are awkward; universal “he” is sexist and outdated; rephrasing or alternating the pronouns isn’t always possible! What’s a writer to do? EMBRACE THE SINGULAR THEY!
It’s good enough for Chaucer, Austen, and Shakespeare, and a growing number of copyeditors are embracing it too! They’re probably not embracing all these exclamation marks though! Tell your friends, spread the word, Singular They is the future!!
*sips coffee*
I feel like I already use this in spoken language a good amount, but it does look weird to me in some sentences…
the exclamations I’m ok with!! I love em!
I’d love to see the interrobang used in more places. Isn’t it just the most useful lil piece of punctuation‽
Yeah, singular “they” is much more common in spoken English. A lot of linguistic changes start in spoken language and bleed into writing.
I like the interrobang but I prefer it as two separate characters. Crazy, right?! 🙂
“I prefer not to.” (Bartleby, the proofer)
Yeah, Chicago doesn’t like it either. We’ll bring ’em around.