Hi Morten, The key to using pronouns correctly is establishing what they refer to. You need to have the referent in front of you, as when writing a caption for a cartoon, or else introduce it with descriptive text, or else point a finger at it.
It might be premature to write with "yo", but if you're inclined to radical forward-looking usage, perhaps using "yo" in the third person would work. During the transition, you might need to explain your usage in a note. Maybe we can get the schoolchildren in Baltimore to podcast or quote one another in blog entries to speed things up. Best wishes, Bruce On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 4:31 AM, Morten Hjerde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I do a lot of writing in english, and when discussing IxD I need to refer > to > the person using the product. But there is no good way top refer to that > person because English language lacks of a gender-neutral singular > pronoun. > Writing"the user" and "he" is easy and works well grammatically, but it is > a > big no-no (and for good reasons). > > I've seen a number of alternative solutions and all has their issues: > > - Using "He" or "She" is considered sexist > - Always referring to the full "he or she" is a bit long-winded and > stifled > - "One" is archaic > - Writing "s/he" or alternating "he" and "she" in every other sentence > seems awkward and strange > - Rewriting the sentence in plural, i.e referring to "they" often > works but not always. > - Referring to "people" or even "you" instead of "the users" is ok, > (but can be a bit of a minefield for non-english writers) > > > But check this out: > Dr. Elaine Stotko, from the School of Education at Johns Hopkins > University, > and her student, Margaret Troyer, have discovered that school children in > Baltimore are *using the slang word yo as a gender-neutral singular > pronoun*. > Dr. Stotko was teaching a master's class at Johns Hopkins, and it came out > during a discussion that several of the high school and middle school > English teachers had noticed their students using *yo* as a pronoun. Often > the students would be talking to another student, would point at the third > person they were referring to, and would say something like "Yo threw a > thumbtack at me." This made teachers think they were using *yo* to mean > "he > or she" instead of *yo* as you would normally hear in phrases like "Yo > momma." > [...] > The researchers found that it was most common for the kids to use *yo* in > the subject position; for example, "Yo wearin' a new coat," (to point out > someone wearing a new coat). But they also used *yo* in the object > position, > as in "I saw yo at school," and "Look at yo." < > http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-yo-pronoun.aspx> > > * > "Yo can accomplish tasks quickly, because well-designed applications don't > get in yo way."* > What do you think? :-) > > -- > Morten Hjerde > http://sender11.typepad.com > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
