Lesson 4: Sexist and Stereotypical Language

Hello class, it's time for more grammar! But don't worry, today's lesson is pretty simple and painless. We are going to discuss sexist and stereotypical language today.

As we've previously discussed, it is important to keep your audience in mind when writing. Doing this will solve many of the problems we're about to discuss-if you know your audience, you'll be able to make wise decisions when choosing words to use. However, as is often the case, you won't know exactly who your audience is-their gender, age, or race. This is why it is important to avoid sexist and stereotypical language in your writing.

Many words in the English language are sexist in nature: businessman, fireman, authoress, man-made, and so on. Most of the time, we are not trying to be sexist when we use words like these, only that they are words we are accustomed to using. Replace words like these with words that are neutral: businessperson, firefighter, writer, and artificial. It may seem a little awkward at first to use words like these; however, to avoid offending people, it is crucial that we use neutral terms. This is true when writing for school, work, or just life in general.

Another thing to watch out for is masculine pronouns (he, his, him). It is harder to avoid using these words when gender is not specified, but a good way to get around it is to make the subject of the sentence plural. For example, instead of writing Every student must turn in his paper by Monday, write Students must turn in their papers by Monday. Another way to avoid the masculine pronoun is to replace it with "the" or "a" or eliminate it altogether. For example: Every student must submit the paper by Monday or Every student must submit papers by Monday. Another option is to use the phrase his or her, though this can become wordy if used too much. Making your sentence passive would also work.

Other than eliminating sexist language from your writing, do not forget to avoid all kinds of stereotypical language, such as singling people out because of their appearance, race, age, or physical conditions.

Well, this will be all for today. Remember your audience and these simple tricks to avoid offending them, and write away!