Inclusive Writing

In General
Sex and Gender
Age
Disability
Race and Ethnicity
Sexual Orientation
Stereotypes

"The Boulder campus is committed to achieving diversity and equity —not just because it's the right thing to do for underrepresented populations—but because it is fundamental to our central educational mission. We strongly believe that all students—minority and majority—benefit from an education enriched by a diversity of ideas, thoughts, and perspectives. Clearly, the quality of learning is enhanced by a campus climate of inclusion, understanding, and appreciation of the full range of human experience." —Diversity and Equity: A Blueprint for Action, July 1999

In General Careful writers try to communicate in a manner that does not exclude particular individuals or groups. At the same time, they try to avoid getting trapped in euphemisms and the ever-changing preferences of various "politically correct" factions—both liberal and conservative. It's a balancing act, the basic premise of which is to treat people as individuals who are equal.

Here are some guidelines for appropriate references to members of distinctive groups.

Sex and Gender Avoid the awkward s/he and his/her. The easiest way to write copy that applies equally to men and women is to use plurals. If the singular must be used, use both pronouns, joined by a conjunction. (For guidelines on when to use sex and when to use gender, see the Word List.)

To be academically successful, students need to do more than attend classes regularly; they also need to practice good study skills, take advantage of faculty office hours, and get sufficient sleep.

If a student is ill, she or he should notify the appropriate professors immediately.

You will need to purchase your campus parking permit during the first week of the new semester.

According to the senior lexicographer at Houghton Mifflin, commenting in Copy Editor newsletter, their is becoming more established and accepted as both a singular and a plural pronoun. In part, this usage derives from attempts to make writing nonsexist. Most professional writers, however, reserve their as a plural pronoun and rewrite copy to avoid using it as a singular pronoun. Because we write for an institution of higher education, we recommend using their only as a plural pronoun until common, published usage has changed significantly.

Age In written materials intended for a general audience, avoid references that make assumptions about age-related abilities or that assume all college and university students are between the ages of 18 and 22.

Disability When writing about individuals with disabilities, use "person first" language; i.e., person who uses a wheelchair. Similarly, blind students would be preferable to the blind. Do not cap blind, deaf,or any other term relating to people with disabilities.

Special arrangements may be made for students with hearing, vision, learning, or physical disabilities.

Parking for persons with disabilities should be referred to as disability parking, not handicap parking.

Race and Ethnicity Current practice and preference is to style the names of non-European Americans without hyphens. Although there are many more distinct ethnicities within each category, these are the most common:

• African American (Americans of African descent)

• Asian American (Americans of Asian descent)

• European American (Americans of European descent)

• Hispanic American (Americans with ancestors from Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, South and Central America)

• Native American

Other preferred terms include:

• American Indian (descendants of the original North, South, and Central Americans)

• Caucasian (commonly used to refer to anyone with light skin)

• Latino/Latina (people of Latin American descent; less broad than Hispanic and preferred by some to Chicano/Chicana)

• people of color (for any non-European Americans and their descendants)

In informal writing, where specific racial and ethnic identification would seem stilted, the terms black and white are sometimes preferable with reference to individuals of African American and European American ancestry. Note that these terms are used both as nouns and adjectives. In both cases, they represent distinct groups of people. However, the terms are not proper nouns and, hence, are not capitalized.

Whether you're black or white, there's no question that we all notice skin color—especially when it's different from our own.

Although style books agree that black and white should not be capitalized, there may be times when, in attempting to conform to a particular group's preference for capitalization, you capitalize one adjective. In such cases, be consistent and capitalize all similar terms:

Whether you're Black or White, there's no question that we all notice skin color—especially when it's different from our own.

Sexual Orientation To avoid the appearance of bias based on sexual orientation, avoid acknowledged, admitted, or avowed as adjectives preceding the words homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, gay, or heterosexual. Preferred phrasings include openly gay or gay. Use transgender, not transgendered. Note that most individuals with a same-sex orientation prefer lesbian or gay over homosexual.

Stereotypes Remember the prime directive: Write about people as individuals, not as members of some stereotypical group. (A special dispensation has been granted for some of the examples in this style guide.) Do not, therefore, write about engineering students as if they were all male. Do not write about professors as if they all dress in tweed and can't remember where they parked their cars.