How do you refer to an author when you do not know their sex?

Question

I'm having a test over in text documentation tomorrow and we have to use an article by an author whose sex isn't known to us. How can I refer to them without being sexist?

Answer 1

Refer to him/her as "the author".
Refer to him/her by last name.
Use "According to so-and-so..."

Answer 2

Use the last name
Use "the author"

If you'd told us who it is, we'd tell you if the author is male or female. Google the author's name to find a biography or some info about ummm the author.

Answer 3

There's no good way.

First person gender is always known. Second person singular (and plural) is neutral (both are "you") . However, there is no neutral third person singular.

There are people who uses s/he, but that's both nonstandard and awkward. You will never see that convention in standard writing.

More common is to use "they" or "their" as third person singular. "Their" is neutral and third person plural, but using the same logic as "you" (both singular and plural for second person), there are several writers who are pushing the use of "their" for use as third person singular. Personally I like this approach, and have used it before. However, it also is non-standard, and I wouldn't use it on an essay that's graded on grammar.

The best usage in common practice is to use "the author" and "he or she" intermingled, but to minimize the use of the pronoun.

And in terms of the most grammatically correct English, the use of the male "he" for unknown gender, while not politically correct, is still grammatically correct.

Answer 4

The author
not Mr, Mrs, or Ms the author.

Answer 5

Refer to the author by his/her last name, or as the authors. For example "Clifford says that blah blah blah". "I believe the authors point is blah blah blah"

Answer 6

he/she, please do not use "they" or anything related to that word when referring to a single identity (i can not express this enough, i am an English grad student and used this word in verbal speech and my professor made a huge deal out of it). Just referring to them by last name also helps (use full name when you first refer to them though). Hope this helps!!!

Answer 7

"the Author"
"the Writer"
"the Source"

If it's a biography, you can say, "the biographer"
If it's a novel, you can say, "the Novelist"