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Editor's note: The Sentinel regularly uses pronouns "they, their and them" in place of "him/her or he/she" in crime stories when the writer is referring to victims of certain abuse. By hiding the gender of the victim, The Sentinel hopes to protect the individual from becoming further victimized. In this example, the writer used the incorrect pronoun in a part of the article. That article has since been edited on the Sentinel's website.
Kevin Zook: A lesson in English 101
To the Editor:
It's basic English 101: pronouns must agree with their antecedents. This elementary grammatical rule was violated repeatedly in the Sentinel's front page strangulation story on May 15, 2024. In the story, a female victim and the English language were both brutally assaulted as the writer repeatedly referred to the victim (singular) with plural pronouns such as they, them, and their.
"Perhaps this is a misguided attempt at woke journalism," I thought, trying hard to give the "journalist" the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the victim's preferred pronouns are they, them, and their. However, in the fourth sentence of the article, the writer uses both the singular pronoun to refer to the victim, as well as plural pronouns them and their. Which is it? Exactly how many victims are there -- one or more than one (they, them, their)? Was the Sentinel's editor asleep at the wheel when that mangled sentence slipped by him/her/them?
As eighth-grade students in Mrs. Smith's English class longer ago than I care to confess, we learned that singular nouns require singular pronouns and plural nouns require plural pronouns. To this day, when I read and hear violations of this simple rule, it's like hearing fingernails on a chalkboard. Yeah, Mrs. Smith actually used a chalkboard, and she did it pretty effectively.
As a teacher at the middle school, college, and graduate levels, I called students' (plural antecedent) attention to their (plural pronoun) violations of the rule hundreds - maybe thousands - of times. It was maddening and wearying. Most of the students whose writing I edited probably never learned the rule and had no clue what nouns, pronouns, and antecedents are, as evidenced by their deer-in-the-headlights look when I tried to explain it to them.
Now the problem is exacerbated with woke notions of multiple genders and preferred pronouns. Let's just use plural pronouns all the time so we don't risk offending anyone! Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but I refuse to bend the rules of the English language because some people can't figure out how many genders there are.
But, alas, I know I am a voice in the wilderness, a salmon swimming upstream. Can we expect better of any writers or "journalists" today? Probably not. Mrs. Smith, we need you! The fingernails on the chalkboard are deafening!
Kevin Zook