Adopting a policy of encouraging the use of gender-neutral langauge

Sroufe, Evelyn

English

UW Law Digital Commons (University of Washington)

Washington Law Review Volume 53 Number 4 10-1-1978 Editor's Note Evelyn Sroufe Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr Recommended Citation Evelyn Sroufe, Editors Notes, Editor's Note, 53 Wash. L. Rev. xi (1978). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr/vol53/iss4/2 This Editors Notes is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at UW Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington Law Review by an authorized editor of UW Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact cnyberg@uw.edu. EDITOR'S NOTEThe Editorial Board of the Washington Law Review has adoptedthe policy of encouraging the use of gender-neutral language to theextent commensurate with good grammar, good usage, and goodsense. Adoption of this policy reflects the Board's desire to avoid theappearance of sex bias which arises from consistent use oi male-gendernouns and pronouns to encompass members of both sexes. The mosttroublesome area in this regard is the use of male-gender pronounswhen referring generally to persons in roles that could be performedby members of either sex: the judge, the attorney, the prosecutor.As editors, we will suggest formulations that avoid the use of thegender pronoun. If we find that alternative formulations are too awk-ward, we will suggest alternating the use of male and female genderpronouns throughout the piece when referring to persons in rolesthat could be filled by either men or women. We will also suggest theuse of optional forms such as "he or she," "him or her." We will at-tempt, however, to avoid stringing several such forms together in asingle sentence because the cumulative effect is often cumbersome.Slash forms such as s/he and him/herself are both grammaticallyquestionable and needlessly androgynous; we will discourage their use.This statement of policy is submitted for the information of ourreaders and as a guide to contributors.Evelyn Sroufe

Editor\u27s Note

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Editor\u27s Note

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