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Choosing Respectful Language
Chapter Objectives
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This chapter is focused on making you more aware of and sensitive to the high reader expectations for fairness and inclusiveness in your language choices. Many of the language conventions used even several years ago are no longer seen as acceptable within many reader communities.
The chapter objectives that follow will help you figure out whether you have really mastered the material presented in this chapter.
After reading this chapter and completing its exercises, you should be able to:
- Explain to another student what is and isn’t meant by sexist and discriminatory language
- Recognize and avoid the most agreed upon examples of sexist and discriminatory language, such as using "policeman" to refer to a police officer whose gender isn’t known, using "girl" to refer to an adult woman, or using "foreigner" to refer to an American of Hispanic background
- Recognize and avoid more subtle examples of problematic language that could potentially offend readers
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