[pianotech] OT: Grammar

[paul bruesch]

Well, "their" and "them" and "they" refer to more than one person, yet the
subject of the sentence is the "applicant", singular. Given that the
university has the individual's name and title, "Mr.", it is clearly aware
of the person's gender, ergo it is a simple matter to say "his
application", "contact him", and "if he has provided".

Certainly "his or her", "he or she", etc. is an awkward construct, but it's
not even necessary here, or in many other cases where "they" (etc.) are
used instead.

On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 4:24 PM, David Boyce <David at piano.plus.com> wrote:

>  This evening I have written and submitted a reference for a former
> student of mine who is applying to university. In the UK, such applications
> are processed by a body called UCAS; the Universities and Colleges
> Admissions Service.
>
> I duly submitted the reference online, and a few moments later, received
> an email confirmation.
>
> Here is the text of the beginning of the email:
>
>
> Dear David Boyce
>
> Your reference for Mr M*** H***** has now been received by us. The
> applicant will now be able to complete and send their application into us,
> we will contact them by email if they have provided a verified email
> address.
>
> Now, folks, I am not a pedant in matters linguistic. I appreciate that
> languages constantly change and evolve. But there is fascinating change and
> evolution, and there is slovenliness.  The secodn sentence of the above
> contains two annoying illiteracies; "into" should of course be "in to" (and
> the "in" is redundant in any case) and a Comma Splice has been used instead
> of a semicolon after "us".
>
> The body who sent that email to me are responsible for almost all of the
> admissions to Higher Education institutions in the UK.  If they are so
> illiterate in so short a communication, what are we to expect in general?
>
> Best regards,
>
> David.
>
>
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