pa 105 kaplan university. gender neutrality and political correctness paraphrasing and quotations...

PA 105 Kaplan University

• Gender Neutrality and Political Correctness• Paraphrasing and Quotations• And Legal Citations….all important things!

• Rules for Writers • From Rules for Writers, read the following

sections:

• • “Brackets,” Section 39c, pp. 311-12

• • “The Ellipsis Mark,” Section 39d, p. 312

• • “Avoid Sexist Language,” Section 17f, pp. 142-44


Concern about the use of sexist language is part of our increased awareness that the perceived meanings of some words have changed in response to the changing roles of men and women in our society. For example, girl once meant a young person of either sex, while youth indicated only a young man. Now, girl applies only to young female persons, while youth can refer to young persons of either sex. Just as you would not use girl with its outdated meaning, you should not use other words connoting gender that do not accurately represent the people behind them.


Gender-fair language minimizes unnecessary concern about gender in your subject matter, allowing both you and your reader to focus on what people do rather than on which sex they happen to be.

Here are some examples of how you can revise the most common sexist usages of he and man.


Original: If the researcher is the principal investigator, he should place an asterisk after his name.

Gender-fair: Place an asterisk after the name of the principal investigator.

Solution 1: Write the sentence without pronouns. Try to avoid conditional structures, generally introduced by "if" or "when," which often require the use of pronouns.


Original: Repeat the question for each subject so that he understands it.

Gender-fair: Repeat the question for each male subject so that he fully understands it.

Solution 2: Use gender-specific pronouns only to identify a specific gender or a specific person.


Original: Repeat the question for each subject so that he understands it.

Gender-fair: Repeat the question for all subjects so that they understand it.

Solution 3: Use plural nouns and pronouns if they do not change the meaning of the sentence.


• Original: The driver should take his completed registration form to the clerk's window and pay his license fee.

• Gender-fair: You should take your completed registration form to the clerk's window and pay your license fee.

• Original: The principal investigator for this report has appended data tables to his summary.

• Gender-fair: I have appended data tables to the summary of this report.

Solution 4: Use a first- or second-person perspective. Notice in the table below that only the third-person singular is marked for gender.


Table of Personal PronounsSingular

First Person - I, my, me, mine Second Person - you, your, yours Third Person - it, she, he, her, him, its, hers, his

PluralFirst Person - we, our, ours, us Second Person - you, your, yours Third Person - they, them, their, theirs


Original: Each supervisor will be at his workstation by 8 a.m.

Gender-fair: Each supervisor will be at his or her workstation by 8 a.m.

Solution 5: Use a double pronoun, i.e. s/he, he or she, he/she, him and her.


Original: After filling out his class schedule, the student should place it in the registrar's basket.

Gender-fair: After filling out a class schedule, the student should place it in the registrar's basket.

Solution 6: Use an article instead of a possessive pronoun as a modifier.


Original: If a student wishes to avoid sex bias in his writing, he should examine these alternatives.

Gender-fair: These alternatives should be examined by any student who wishes to avoid sex bias in writing.

Solution 7: Sparingly use the passive voice.


1) Be careful when addressing groups or talking about others. Use language that would not make any person feel excluded, diminished, or devalued.

2) Avoid language that addresses only one demographic group unless it is intended for that group only, such as using "men" when you mean "all people.”


•3) Avoid titles that are exclusionary, such as "Chairman" (use "Chairperson"); "Fireman" (use Firefighter); and "Stewardess" (use "Flight Attendant"). The use of titles that exclude persons of a different gender or other social groups is usually acceptable when addressing an individual, as in a business setting, where Mr. Smith is the CEO, and you are introducing him as "Mr. Smith, our Chairman of the Board".


• 4) Avoid expressions that are derogatory with regard to physical or mental abilities, such as "handicapped" or "retarded". Instead, use first person language, such as "person with a disability" or "person with Down's Syndrome". People have disabilities, they are not defined by them. In many cases, simply addressing the person who has mental, physical, or other challenges in the same terms as you would address anyone else is the ideal solution.


5) Avoid overly-cautious racial descriptions that can be offensive. For example, say "African American" only when talking about Americans who are the descendents of African Slaves. Other Africans know what country they're from ex: A person from Egypt is Egyptian American. In the case that you are unsure of a person's citizenship, "black" and "white" are acceptable terms.


•6) Avoid the use of religious terms when speaking to a group that may include people who belong to different religions (ex., saying "God Bless" at a local event). The exception here is in the context of describing either academically or referentially specific characteristics of such a group, as in "Evangelical Christians hold certain beliefs...", or "Jewish people commonly recognize Yom Kippur...".


• 7) Be sensitive to the inferences people may read in to the words you choose. Many common expressions have roots in a less inclusive social climate, and only time and education can completely eliminate them (ex., if you are asking if a girl is taken, asking "Do you have a boyfriend?" would be politically incorrect, as it makes them exclusively heterosexual. Instead ask, "Are you seeing/dating anyone?"). By the same token, each cultural group has equal protection from offensive generalizations and slurs, not just a certain ethnic group or gender.


8) Respect every individual's right to choose the language and words that best describe their race, class, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or physical ability. Don't get defensive if someone rejects language which dis-empowers, marginalizes, confines, or diminishes them. The ability to name is a daunting power; individuals should play a role in selecting words to describe themselves.


http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Politically-Correct

http://www.rpi.edu/web/writingcenter/genderfair.html


Paraphrasing is preferred over direct quotations; quoting should be selectively used.

Altering quotations: Sometimes quotations need to be altered, to do so, use brackets.

Abridging quotations: when material in quotes contains irrelevant or distracting info. Use an ellipses mark


• For example, “The plaintiff signed the papers over to him,” might cause confusion if there are no context clues to indicate the identity of “him.” In such a case, if providing the identity of “him” is clear from a larger reading of the text, you might quote thus: “The plaintiff signed the papers over to [Mr. Ross].” For further discussion of the use of brackets to clarify or modify a quote, and on how to use “[sic]” to indicate a misprint or error in the original quoted text, see Rules for Writers, “Brackets,” Section 39c, pp. 311-12.


•As, if not more, important than in regular writing.

• There is an organized and uniform system of legal citation. We will use Bluebook, A Uniform System of Citation

•Makes it easier for attorneys and judges to recognize and easily retrieve our sources.

•The writing center has great resources to help you understand when citations are needed and how to paraphrase/avoid plagiarism.


•Whether you are writing an internal legal memorandum or an appellate brief, to discuss a legal principle without citing its source is to speak without authority; doing so in a legal document is tantamount to coming to court naked.

•Although there may be more than one system, Kaplan uses it’s own system in all your classes. You need to know this system.

•More will be taught to you in your Legal Research class.


• Chapter 4 of Legal Writing, Principles of Juriography, pp. 47-60.

• Although no need to Shepardize just yet, you will need to know:

• (1) Cite in-text; i.e., directly following the stated legal proposition in the main body of the text; do not use footnotes;

• (2) Where appropriate, use citation signals before the citation and parenthetic explanations after the citation;

• (3) As a general rule, prefer paraphrasing to direct quotes;

• (4) String cite sparingly.


Shepardizing refers to making sure the cases are still good law, for our purposes, assume the four cases previously given are still good law.


•Citation Signals: In-text citations should be integrated into the discussion they support. In your writing, you should make your legal point up-front. The words you use to do so should, to the extent possible, be your own, even where the legal rule is not. Follow your statement with a citation supporting the rule. For instance,

• Evidence obtained through unconstitutional means is not admissible at a criminal trial. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 655 (1961).


• Where the citation does not represent the most direct, on-point authority for the stated proposition, a citation signal may be needed to help contextualize the reference. Where citation signals are used, there is often an additional need,following the citation, for a parenthetical phrase explaining that case’s significance to your discussion. For instance,

• See, e.g., Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923) (recognizing parents’ due process right to direct the upbringing of their children); Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925) (striking down compulsory education act by reaffirming the fundamental right of parents announced in Meyer).


The difference in the two cites above and the previous one, is that you are using the paraphrasing to make your point here, in the other case, Mapp, you are just giving the rule of law outright.


• You do not usually need to have more than one citation; unless, you are aiming to emphasize the fact that there is a great deal of authority supporting your point, or there is another important and specific reason why you must use more than one authority to illustrate or support your point.

• If you do need to, use, “E.g.” (exempla gratia in Latin, meaning, “for example”) is a useful signal to let the reader know that the cite you have listed is one of many authorities holding similarly, without your having to list them all. Do not confuse “e.g.” with “i.e.”, which in Latin stands for id est and means “that is.”


•Usually one citation is adequate.• If not, use “E.g.”For practice with citation signals, complete exercise 1 and 2 in Chapter 4 of Legal Writing: Principles of Juriography.


Citation ExerciseFinal Draft of the MemoThe Unit 8 Grading Rubric is posted

to DocSharing


You should have received your draft back from your instructor with comments and feedback. Please review carefully and implement the changes that were suggested by the instructor. Make sure that you address not only grammatical issues but issues of analysis as well, which may take more time and thought.


Locate and open the grading rubric located in doc sharing

Let’s review it!


pa 105 kaplan university. gender neutrality and political correctness paraphrasing and quotations...

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