Collab: Removing "he/she"s

ThePremiumYoshi

ThePremiumYoshi

TPY -- Massive Zebra Fan
We have another problem that is quite common on our articles, and it's starting to become even more common. The page MarioWiki:Manual of Style (MarioWiki:Manual_of_Style#No_.22You.22s) states that, when referring to the player, it is improper to use terms such as "he/she", "s/he", "him/her", "him/herself", etc. However, a disturbing amount of pages consistently use these exact terms to refer to the player, when they could simply avoid these gender-specific terms by using the singular "they", for example, not to mention that such terms make the article look rather unprofessional. "He or she" can be used occasionally, but it is best just to avoid these and use the aforementioned singular "they". It should be noted that it is also incorrect to refer to the player by using only "him", or only "her" - let's not be sexists here.

If you happen to find a page with these horrendous terms, simply replace them with the singular "they" or "the player". If you search for "he/she" (or the other terms), including the quotation marks, you can find pages that need fixing.
 
I'll help out if I come across any.
 
I definitely will replace the "he or she" thing because of its incredibly awkward structure, but I will NOT follow what the wiki policy states, since the use of singular "they" is controversial at best, and some expert writers such as E.B. White, writer of the book, "The Elements of Style", very much frown upon. Due to its controversial nature, singular "they" should not be considered standard. Instead, I will use the less controversial manner of changing the sentences: either removing the possessive pronoun altogether or replacing the singular antecedent with a plural.

EDIT: By the way, "themself" is not a word. Stop using that.
 
Except that I did not use "themself" at all.
 
Baby Luigi said:
"The Elements of Style"
Click to expand...
You mention this quite a bit. I should try to find myself a copy because it sounds quite useful
 
Well I wasn't directing it at you specifically. I was just directing at people who seem to use "themself" as a replacement when it's not even a word in the first place.'

Virtual Dino said:
Baby Luigi said:
"The Elements of Style"
Click to expand...
You mention this quite a bit. I should try to find myself a copy because it sounds quite useful
Click to expand...

It is. My sister taught me quite a bunch from that book. It taught me about precision in writing, bad words such as utilize, and other stuff. And best of all, it's easy to understand and it's hand-book shaped so it's very convenient

Here's a link to it.
http://www.bartleby.com/141/
 
The book I have is this particular one: http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Style-4th-William-Strunk/dp/0205313426

But my favorite section is the clear and concise writing. Eliminating useless words is something I like to do in articles in this wiki.
 
Let me give you examples on how we should remove "he/she"s or "he or she"s.

"The player should drive his/her kart to victory."

Now that sounds awkward. No one likes that construction. Besides, it's nonstandard. The standard version is the following

"The player should drive his or her kart to victory."

Standard, but still horribly clunky and awkward, if not a little hard to read. Still no one likes that construction, even if it's considered correct.

"The player should drive their kart to victory."

This is the construction the wiki favors, but not all of us are ok with it. Singular "they" is highly controversial, and using it would lead to some confusion on whether it is appropriate or not.

These are the sentences I am proposing we do.

"Players should drive their kart to victory."

This still makes sense since this refers to players as all people who play the game. And it eliminates the controversy. There is no way this sentence is wrong, and there is little reason to change it.

"Players should drive the kart to victory."

This eliminates the possessive pronoun through a rewrite. This requires more thought than the previous one, but it works too, and if rewritten well, will look better than the previous result.

EDIT: However, we may have a problem using the plural pronoun if something affects only one player. I suggest we lay off the pronoun usage for that, or rewrite the sentence as the second option.
 
Yeah, I try to completely avoid this and usually say "Mario" or "the player" and replace a possessive pronoun with "the". I'll remove any I catch.