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15.7 be careful of use of personal pronouns you, one, he, she, they 1. The use of
you to address the reader directly is rare in research manuscripts. It is normally reserved for user guides,
instruction manuals, websites and email.
2. The generic pronoun
one is somewhat archaic and in any case can easily be avoided.
3. Only use
he and
she (and
his, him, her, hers ) when they are specifically used in relation to a male or female subject, respectively. Using either
he or
she to refer to a generic person (i.e. where the sex of the person is irrelevant) sounds either politically incorrect or simply strange.
4.
You can avoid using he and
she (and
he / she etc) by making the subject plural and using
they / their / them / theirs. 5. When the subject must be singular, do not use the masculine pronoun, instead use
he / she, him / her and
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