Further bias-free language

If students ask us for advice in preparing an academic research paper or thesis, we may suggest that some ways to use English in writing are now preferred. So that we appear to be objective and not following old fashioned styles of writing English, words such as manpower are no longer considered ideal. The noun manpower refers to the total number of available workers or workforce, or the power of a single working person. Note that terms such as workers, workforce, personnel, or working person are different from the word manpower. The student may ask:

What is wrong with using the word manpower?

We may reply:

The issue is that it contains the word man, while other terms such as workers, workforce, personnel, or working person do not.

Since in academic research papers and theses we may be referring to women as well as men when discussing workers, it is best to use a term that includes everyone. This is especially important to avoid giving the impression to overseas readers that we think only men can be workers and that women are not included. In a similar way, in old English language books we may find such terms as the average man. It would be better to use instead such terms as the average person or people in general. If a student or ajarn is organizing an academic meeting or conference, instead of the term chairman to describe the head of an academic department, meeting or organization, it is better to use the terms chair, moderator, or discussion leader. If the student asks us:

What is the difference between the word chairman and the terms chair, moderator, and discussion leader?

Our answer is simple:

One of these words has the word man in it. By using words that do not suggest the person or people being described must necessarily be men, then we are showing respect to all participants at the event.

For this reason, many universities in the English-speaking world have decided that instead of the term freshmen, it is better to use the term first-year students. The two terms mean the same thing, but unlike freshmen, first-year students does not suggest that the students being referred to are all males. In writing academic research papers and theses, if discussing doctors, nurses, lawyers, professors, or administrative assistants, try to avoid using the terms he or she when making a general observation. It can be difficult to avoid making this error, for example in the sentence:

A good doctor should always admit that he is human and has limits.

Clearly there are also doctors who are women, but the above sentence does not show respect to them by recognizing that they exist. Some writers try to fix this problem by adding a mention of women, making the original sentence longer:

A good doctor should always admit that he or she is human and has limits.

However the use of he or she can be awkward, so it is better to solve the issue by making such general sentences plural, and use they instead of he or she.

Good doctors should always admit that they are human and have limits.

That way no one is left out and no reader will feel offended by what we have written. Also we have given the impression that we are aware of modern trends in social understanding, and we are no longer thinking the way people did a century or more ago.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)