Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

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24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

s/he

Is it acceptable in your opinion to use “s/he” in official documents instead of “she/he” or “she or he”?

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Comments

IMHO it SHOULD be acceptable and I use it in informal writing all the time. It is NOT acceptable in formal writing, so I use they which is more acceptable to me than using he to mean all people, but is not grammatically correct. Hmph.

Janet1 Apr-21-2005

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"She or he" is the form that should probably be used in formal contexts, since it's straightforward, unambiguous and fairly common.

Of course, a proper unsexed pronoun in English would solve all these problems.

Persephone_Imytholin Apr-21-2005

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Personally, I use s/he when ever i need to refer to both. But I don't write many formal documents. So thus, I have no idea. But i put thumbs up to s/he! :D

Taylor May-08-2005

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not to be sexist... but she or he sounds backwards... i have always heard he or she. and in an official document i would us "he or she" not "he/she" and s/he is very informal.

Steve1 Jun-17-2005

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Before everything got so politically correct, I would recommend just using "he," as this is technically the correct way to do it. However, most people don't know this, and would probably get offended. =(

As Steve said, I would use "he or she."

Meg1 Oct-11-2005

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The main problem with "s/he" is this: how the hell is it pronounced?

bubbha Feb-18-2006

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In my opinion "s/he" should be driven off the face of the planet. It's an unpronouncable symbol that stops me in my tracks each time I encounter it. Either recast the sentence or give in to the singular "they."

David_Fickett-Wilbar Apr-18-2006

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Use "they".

John4 Jul-25-2006

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s/he, by using logic, means s or he. I think s/he is a typo of (s)he. I try to convince people that "s/he" is a typo, but nobody believes me. "s/he" just looks off.

user110004 Jan-27-2021

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I also once became interested in this question and read a lot about it. Later I came across the freedom of speech essay on the website https://studydriver.com/freedom-of-speech-essay/ and in the essay, I was able to see how to use certain forms. It helps to understand something well if you understand the rules.

Hilanne Jan-17-2022

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