Dear Editor:
These are trying times for local newspapers everywhere, and our hard-pressed editors certainly don't need extra problems. Sometimes that extra problem involves a clash between grammatical correctness and political correctness.
Grammatical correctness requires use of either a masculine or feminine pronoun when referring to only one person, while political correctness requires our former use of the masculine pronoun when the actual gender of that person is unknown is no longer acceptable. That creates a tough conundrum for every conscientious editor. That clash often gives the editor only bad choices, such as, to use the awkward "his/her," (or rarely, the even more awkward "one's"), or to be incorrect, either politically or grammatically.
The times are tough enough. I can really sympathize with writers - especially editors -who have this kind of added burden.
In her editorial, "From this Corner," in the April 25 issue of the News-Optimist, editor Becky Doig, was faced with this conundrum a couple of times, and chose the probably most (nearly) acceptable politically correct version each time. For example, she wrote, "... I rarely make the trip without seeing at least one driver with a phone glued to their ear," choosing to use a grammatically incorrect plural pronoun ("their), referring to a singular noun ("driver").
I don't blame her. She knows what she's doing. Oh, she could have written "her ear," but that would probably have been seen on all fronts as wrong.
Russell Lahti
Battleford
