Use: people, humanity Use: work force, employees Use: to staff, to run, to operate Use: begetting, creating, fostering Use:
caring, nurturing Use: firefighter Use: police officer, public safety officer Use: postal carrier, postal worker Use: chair *Use chairman, chairwoman or chairperson only if that is the person's official
job title and always if it is the person's official job title. The heads of departments at WMU are officially appointed by the Board of Trustees with the title "chair." Instead of: Each student must meet with his professor.Use gender-neutral terms whenever possible.
Not: mankind
Not: manpower
Not: to man
Not: fathering
Not: mothering
Not: fireman
Not: policeman
Not: postman
Not: chairman, chairwoman*When possible, write in the plural.
Write: All students must meet with their professors.
Never write: Each student must meet with their professor.
Instead of: Each alumnus was
invited.
Write: All alumni were invited.
Never write: Each alumni was invited.
Write in the second person.
In most writing, it is acceptable and preferable to address readers in the second person. This creates writing that is less legalistic and which helps avoid gender-specific pronouns.
Instead of: The applicant should submit his resume by Nov. 1.
Write: Submit your resume by Nov. 1.
Never
write: The applicant should submit your resume by Nov. 1.
Eliminate the third-person singular possessive.
Instead of: Each child scribbled on his pad of paper.
Write: Each child scribbled on a pad of paper.
Choose words that apply equally to men and women.
It is a reality of the English language that many words which may apply to men can equally apply to men and women. Only a woman can be an actress. Both women and men can be actors. The first definition of an actor is, “one who acts.” It is not gender specific.
Instead of: Student actors and actresses will perform "Othello."
Write: Student actors will perform "Othello."
Instead of: She is one of the today's top comediennes.
Write: She is one of the today's top comedians.
Avoid writing that is awkward for the sake of gender equity
Your goal is to avoid gender bias in your writing. In most cases, however, it is not the goal of your message to advance the cause of gender equity. Avoid writing that is legalistic or that makes gender or gender equity an unintended issue.
Avoid slash constructions.
Instead of: Each student can choose his/her major.
Write: Each student can choose his or her major.
Still better: All students can choose their majors.
Instead
of: Each alumnus/alumna gets a vote.
Write: Each alumnus or alumna gets a vote.
Never write: Each alumnus/na gets a vote.
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Summary:
APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 6th edition, second printing of the APA manual, offers examples for the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page. For more information, please consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (6th ed., 2nd printing).
Note: This page reflects APA 6, which is now out of date. It will remain online until 2021, but will not be updated. There is currently no equivalent 7th edition page, but we're working on one. Thank you for your patience. Here is a link to our APA 7 "General Format" page.
Researchers who use APA often work with a variety of populations, some of whom tend to be stereotyped by the use of labels and other biased forms of language. Therefore, APA offers specific recommendations for eliminating bias in language concerning race, disability, and sexuality.
Make Adjustments to Labels
Although you should avoid labeling whenever possible, it is sometimes difficult to accurately account for the identity of your research population or individual participants without using language that can be read as biased. Making adjustments in how you use identifiers and other linguistic categories can improve the clarity of your writing and minimize the likelihood of offending your readers.
In general, you should call people what they prefer to be called, especially when dealing with race and ethnicity. But sometimes the common conventions of language inadvertently contain biases towards certain populations - e.g. using "normal" in contrast to someone identified as "disabled." Therefore, you should be aware of how your choice of terminology may come across to your readers, particularly if they identify with the population in question.
You can find an in-depth discussion of this issue and specific recommendations for how to appropriately represent people in your text on the APA website on the following pages:
- Removing Bias in Language: Disabilities
- Removing Bias in Language: Race & Ethnicity
- Removing Bias in Language: Sex and Gender
Avoid Gendered Pronouns
While you should always be clear about the sexual identity of your participants (if you conducted an experiment), so that gender differences are obvious, you should not use gender terms when they aren't necessary. In other words, you should not use "he," "his" or "men" as generic terms applying to both sexes.
APA does not recommend replacing "he" with "he or she," "she or he," "he/she," "(s)he," "s/he," or alternating between "he" and "she," because these substitutions are awkward and can distract the reader from the point you are trying to make. The pronouns "he" or "she" inevitably cause the reader to think of only that gender, which may not be what you intend.
To avoid the bias of using gendered pronouns:
- Rephrase the sentence
- Use plural nouns or plural pronouns - this way you can use "they" or "their"
- Replace the pronoun with an article - instead of "his," use "the"
- Drop the pronoun - many sentences sound fine if you just omit the troublesome "his" from the sentence
- Replace the pronoun with a noun such as "person," "individual," "child," "researcher," etc.
For more about addressing gender in academic writing, visit the OWL's resource on use.
Find Alternative Descriptors
To avoid unintentional biases in your language, look to the parameters of your research itself. When writing up an experimental report, describe your participants by the measures you used to classify them in the experiment, as long as the labels are not offensive.
Example: If you had people take a test measuring their reaction times and you were interested in looking at the differences between people who had fast reaction times and those with slow reaction times, you could call the first group the "fast reaction time group" and the second the "slow reaction time group."
Also, use adjectives to serve as descriptors rather than labels. When you use terms such as "the elderly" or "the amnesiacs," the people lose their individuality. One way to avoid this is to insert an adjective (e.g., "elderly people," "amnesic patients"). Another way is to mention the person first and follow this with a descriptive phrase (e.g., "people diagnosed with amnesia"), although it can be cumbersome to keep repeating phrases like this.