Written by: Claire Niven
Published: 23-09-2024

• Be precise when talking about identities.
• Replace harmful terms with more neutral language.
• Listen to how people describe themselves and if in doubt, ask.
• Keep learning!

On 6 July, I attended the SENSE Summer Social, which this year was held at the Hortus botanicus in Leiden, followed by lunch at Loetje Leiden. The event, organized by Becky Tomas, was a well-attended and enjoyable day exploring the multi-faceted gardens.

I was very excited to have an official tour of this historic garden, and to meet new colleagues. Though I joined SENSE several years ago, this was my first in-person event. I am a relatively new copy editor, and participating in a professional community where I can learn and grow is important to me.

On the rainy and windy Saturday morning, the sound of SENSE members and their partners greeting one another filled the glass house entrance hall of the Hortus botanicus. From the way people asked after each other’s families, it was clear that SENSE has facilitated many lasting friendships. This struck me particularly, as working for one’s self, as I do, is potentially isolating and lonely.

More than 40 people attended; I had never before been in the presence of so many language professionals at once. As a dedicated introvert, I found the noise and number of people to be a bit overwhelming. But my social anxiety was quickly put to rest by how welcoming and friendly people were. Throughout the day, multiple SENSE members approached me to introduce themselves and welcome me to the event and to the group.

Once everyone had arrived, we split into three groups and took guided tours of the gardens. The tour was very interesting and informative, and being in a smaller group allowed me to learn a little about some of the other members. I was impressed by the breadth of knowledge represented in our small group; many thought-provoking questions were asked of our guide, and some SENSE members were even able to provide additional information and context about the plants and the history of Leiden.

The Hortus botanicus, our guide explained, was established by the University of Leiden in 1590, less than 50 years after the world’s first botanical garden at the University of Padua in Italy. The garden’s layout have understandably changed as the garden has grown and evolved over 400+ years, reflecting the history of the Netherlands and Europe.

It seemed appropriate that a society of language professionals, hailing from different countries and with different backgrounds, would meet there, in a place that has represented since its founding the Dutch engagement with the rest of the world.

A relatively recent effort, completed in 2009, has restored the original garden as it would have been in 1590 under the prefecture of botanist Carolus Clusius. The original collection, intended to benefit the university’s medical students, housed both medicinal plants and those plants gathered from abroad by the Dutch East India Company – including the infamous tulip.

As we walked through the somewhat wild reconstructed garden, a few SENSE members commented that many of the plants grown there also grow in their own gardens across the North Sea in the UK. Dutch-speakers and English-speakers shared the plants’ respective common names, often finding similarities.

My reminder of home came in the form of the swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum); though not particularly notable, the tree is native to the southern United States, where I lived for a year (from my native California) before I moved to the Netherlands.

As it was a particularly windy day, we spent the largest part of our time in the glass house with the tropical plant collections. Though we’d sadly missed the smelly bloom of the Amorphophallus gigas (native to Sumatra), we were impressed by carnivorous pitcher plants, a giant elephant ear (Colocasia gigantea from Thailand), and the soft pink bloom of a giant water lily (Victoria amazonica from the Amazon rainforest).

As I looked around at the international group of SENSE members, I couldn't help but feel a kinship to the plants so lovingly cultivated and cared for by the botanists of the Hortus botanicus: we are most of us transplants ourselves, and have made the Netherlands our home and the source of our professional community.

The tour could have easily gone on all day, as we’d only viewed a fraction of the gardens. But as our bodies were tiring and our stomachs were hungry, I was happy to start the trek to Loetje Leiden, where three large banquet tables were waiting for us in a private room.

Over lunch, I had the opportunity to get to know my table mates as we chatted over cheese croquettes, a tasty goat cheese salad, and generous plates of sandwiches. The conversation was stimulating, ranging from the language profession to our personal life histories, to the best activities to do with children in the Netherlands.

Though I did not have the opportunity to visit with everyone, I was impressed by the obvious depth of knowledge of those SENSE members with whom I did visit. As a new editor, it was inspiring to meet so many who have not only made successful, longstanding careers in the language profession, but have also made the Netherlands their true home. I look forward to growing my own connections with this dynamic and welcoming group of people.

I made my very first subtitle in 1993 and I fell in love on the spot. Subtitle translation is such a wonderful mix of skills! After more than 30 years I still get a kick out of getting it exactly right. And that’s a lot more complicated than you might think…

I wrote my master’s thesis on subtitling, analysing the translation of humorous content in episodes of ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ and ‘The Young Ones’. But even so I had only the faintest grasp of the ins and outs of subtitling before I started working as a subtitle translator. So what are all these skills you need in order to be good at this? Allow me to share the four most important ones.

First of all, you need to be able to condense because subtitles must be short. If you translate everything that’s said in the video, either your whole screen will be covered in words or you’d have to make titles that flash by too fast for viewers to read them. Reading will always be a slower brain process than listening; it’s almost a law of physics. So you condense, and you learn to put in the essence of the meaning.

Condensing sometimes involves tough choices. Here’s an example. A detective arrives at a crime scene and is told by his sergeant: ‘63-year-old male victim, died of multiple stab wounds, time of death approximately 11 o’clock, SOCO will be here in 20 minutes. Coffee?’ That took eight seconds. You could make two four-second subtitles here. That would give you four lines of about 30 characters each. The software indicates how many you can put in to stay within the reading speed. That’s not enough to translate everything, so what do you leave out? You could leave out the coffee because it comes last and all the viewers will hear it clearly, but that might have an annoying effect. You’ll need space to explain what SOCO is. With luck the image will show something useful, perhaps the stab wounds, so you might skip those. You’ll have to find out if the age of the victim is relevant; if not, you might skip that. And so on. If the speech is slow, you’re lucky, but fast speech means lots of condensing without losing the essence in translation.

This need to condense, incidentally, is why I soon learnt not to tell people I’m a subtitler. I got tired of defending my work and explaining the reading speed thing. So at parties, or when meeting old acquaintances, I would avoid the subject of my profession to keep them from going off on the usual tangent: ‘Oh, TV subtitles are awful! They never translate what is said! Even I could do a better job!’ Sure, sure. One time this strategy bit me in the ass because I lied and said I was a pastry cook. Turns out, so was the person I was talking to.

A second skill you need as a subtitle translator – perhaps obviously – is an absolute mastery of the two languages you work with. Having an extensive vocabulary at your fingertips means you can pick the shortest word or phrase for your subtitle translation. You rebuild sentences, cut them into bits to accommodate reading speed, and do it fast because there’s always a deadline!

Third, being able to work with the software because subtitling is quite technical. Learning to work with the software takes time. One second of footage has 25 frames and your job is to time each subtitle to synchronize with the spoken word, down to the frame: 1/25th of a second. The software helps you pinpoint when your subtitle pops up and when it disappears. It also tells you when you put too many characters into a title (so viewers won’t have enough time to read it), or if the line is too long to fit the screen.

When you work for a range of clients, you need to be aware of their different styles. For example, some clients want three-frame intervals between subtitles so the eye will perceive the change. Other clients absolutely forbid subtitles staying on across a shot change. Some allow two speakers in one subtitle with a hyphen to separate them, some don’t. Things like that.

And the fourth skill, while you do all this, is remembering the underlying principle of subtitles: they should be like glasses. They help you watch a movie, but you shouldn’t be aware of them all the time. Subtitles should be unprovocative and so easy to read that you almost forget they’re there.

Studies show that subtitles are a terrific language-learning tool, especially for people whose native tongue is a minority language. In the Netherlands, TV subtitles are more widely read than newspapers. Vast quantities of video material become accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing thanks to subtitling.

Sadly, a lot of subtitle translators need other work on the side, or some other source of income (like rich parents or a partner with a good job) to make ends meet. This is not a well-paid profession. Most video content producers put subtitling way at the bottom of their budgets – often less than 1%. Most viewers will accept shoddy subtitles as a fact of life – they’ll complain, but not to the network or the studio. I was lucky enough to be in permanent employment with a media company for the first 13 years of my subtitling career, but most subtitle translators I know are freelancers. On top of all this, I suspect there will be plenty of AI software and apps in the very near future that will replace human subtitlers.

So there you have it! A fantastic profession, important even, but sadly undervalued. Long may it live.

In October 2022, the translators and interpreters’ coach Simone van de Wijdeven published an article on peer coaching (Intervisie: verrijkend, humoristisch, verbindend) on the website of the Dutch Association of Interpreters and Translators (NGTV). Simone is a sworn French interpreter and translator who, after a 30-year-long career, realized that there was no Dutch platform where interpreters and translators could go to freely discuss the professional and personal circumstances of their work. This is why she created the platform Itsyou, where she offers training, individual coaching and peer coaching. In the following interview she focuses on those concepts and on what the Harvard Business Review calls ‘The Surprising Power of Peer Coaching’.

In Dutch, the term for peer coaching is intervisie, which is not a literal translation. Is there a difference between the two terms in your view? What is peer coaching?

Certainly. I think that the word ‘coaching’ is inappropriate where it concerns intervisie (intervision). Intervision is a way of sharing dilemmas you encounter in your work with colleagues. You support and advise each other to create insight into a particular problem and to find a solution together. Imagine that you are struggling with translating a word because the meanings in the source and target languages are not exact equivalents. This happens quite often in legal terminology. Assistant district attorneys have different responsibilities in the Netherlands than they have in France. How would you deal with this? Intervision is an excellent way of dealing with such an issue together with others. Intervision participants have something in common and try to find a solution together.

A coach focuses on helping the coachee, the person who has a request, with gaining insight into certain issues. Let’s say that you’re a translator, and you’re very much a perfectionist. That perfectionism has come from somewhere. Together with a coach, you explore the origins of this perfectionism and how you can deal with this. Like in the article ‘The surprising power of peer coaching’, the coach helps an individual. The coach always sees the coachee on a one-to-one basis and never as part of a group. In contrast, intervision takes place in groups.

When and why did you start offering peer coaching services?

I founded Itsyou Coaching two years ago. This stemmed from an intense desire to provide interpreters and translators with a platform where they can go to with questions about their work. What issues am I running into? What caused them? And especially: how can I deal with them? In our jobs, we’re continuously having to be self-reliant. Interpreters in particular must respond ad hoc when they are interpreting and find solutions for dilemmas they encounter. I believe collaboration means power. Why should all of us continue to struggle with questions on our own if there is an opportunity to learn from each other? My starting point is everyone’s inner resilience and drive to do the right thing. Allowing yourself to be vulnerable, being open-minded, listening to what others can teach you and, at the same time, being mindful of your own limits make you a stronger person. And someone who is strong is also able to cope better with challenges at work and in their private life. By organizing intervision sessions, I try to reach this goal.

Why is it important for translators and interpreters?

I think that it’s especially important for interpreters and translators because we work on our own. We have no immediate colleagues who we can turn to with questions that are bothering us. The strength of intervision is getting to know each other and hearing from each other how to also deal with issues that are not related to translation. Following a demanding interpreting session at a psychologist’s or at a police interview that really got to me, I took the emotions home with me. I had nobody to share those with. You are bound by your duty of confidentiality. And it is difficult for those at home to understand how those interpreting sessions affect you. In that case, it can be very helpful if you can let off steam to others in the same position. You feel that others hear what you are saying. And that alone reduces your stress.

I imagine that sessions might be different for translators than for interpreters. What can each expect?

Intervision of translators often focuses on language-specific issues. Intervision can be organized for language-specific groups or it can focus on cross-language issues. However, you notice that those translating into the same language are drawn to each other. There already is a certain relationship of trust. That is undoubtedly the case for certain languages, but then again not for all. The language-specific element is less important to interpreters. The issues here are more about dealing with a certain situation. Many situations give rise to stress. Sharing this in a group where members understand what you mean reduces stress.

What is your role as a coach and a trainer? Is there a difference between the two?

As a coach, I work with one coachee, a person with a coaching request. The request varies. One person may want to find out how they can deal with perfectionism or fear of failure, while someone else may want to prepare for an exam and learn interpreting skills. There are also many requests related to stress. Thus, I work just with the coachee. I support the coachee with gaining an understanding of where the issues stem from and, subsequently, provide tools to deal with them.

As a trainer, I don’t concentrate on the individual aspect, but stand in front of a group of 10 to 12 participants. And I have even had a group of 35 colleagues. I organize a workshop about a topic like stress, for example. During this workshop, I talk about what stress is, where it stems from and what the consequences are for the mind and body and about some of the possible solutions. After each bit of theory, I get the participants to complete a task that relates to themselves. The participants will then discuss the tasks in pairs. Where stress is concerned, these are often sensitive topics. People must allow themselves to be vulnerable. That is difficult in a large group; however, it is a safe environment when working in pairs. Afterwards, there is always the opportunity to reflect as a group.

Has your coaching experience been rewarding?

Yes, because each coaching programme or training course provides insights and offers the coachee or the training participant opportunities. In any case, you become aware of the things you do, often on autopilot. The training or coaching programme forces you to take a moment, to reflect. That allows you to do something with it. I had a coachee who wanted to change jobs. But he wasn’t sure what job he did want. Over the course of the coaching programme, he found out what he wanted to do. In the end, he managed to land his dream job.

Are you still working as a translator and interpreter? If so, what is your view on the current use of artificial intelligence in the world of translations?

I still work as an interpreter, but no longer as a translator. I want to stay in touch with interpreting to keep up with developments in the field. One of those developments is AI. I recently interviewed Marina Snoek. She is a Russian and Ukrainian interpreter. And she is a literary translator. In the podcast (see my Itsyou podcast De Tolk) she talks about how she uses AI for her translations. When she can’t find the right word, she uses AI to find synonyms. Each word has a subtle difference in meaning. She turned a threat, as many translators consider AI, into an opportunity. That is very clever. And I think that is how you should use AI.

I often hear translators say that they have less work. Translators now often receive texts that have already been translated and the client is asking them to post-edit these texts. That is not much fun, I am told, because it is no longer your translation. You are expected to improve a computer-generated translation. These translations are often of very poor quality and require many corrections. Whereas translators charge per word for their translations, they charge per hour for post-editing. These rates are much higher than the word rate, for example €90 per hour. If you work on a text that requires a lot of editing, you will soon have earned €2000. That is a positive side of it. I understand that it is difficult for translators to embrace AI, but when you are an entrepreneur, you must always try to convert threats into opportunities. Ask yourself the following questions: What else could you do using AI? How can you use it to your advantage? Perhaps you could even work within the AI sector to take care of the translations.

As far as interpreters are concerned, I think that AI may also play a role in the longer term. Using AI, the speaker can hear the translation of a question from the audience through an earpiece, for example, and vice versa. But I don’t think that it will have a negative effect in the very near future. Interpreting truly is a job best done by people. There are many more aspects to it than just translating. How do you deal with your emotions and with those of your clients? AI won’t be able to solve that for you. Interpreting involves feelings and understanding of the emotions. And we have not yet reached the stage where a robot can do all those things. People will continue to attract people. A robot will never be able to offer the literal and figurative warmth that a person has to offer.

I always like to know what people are reading. Have you read something interesting recently?

I love historical novels. I recently read ‘Grand Hotel Europa’ by Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer. It is a wonderful book about the European identity. ‘Het achtste leven: (voor Brilka)’ by Nino Haratischwili is another fantastic book. It tells the story of a Georgian family over the years. I really enjoyed this book. However, you must exercise some patience when reading it because the book has close to a thousand pages!

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Acknowledgement

With thanks to editor and translator Monique Oude Luttikhuis (website: www.tuitionandtranslationservicesspalding.com; LinkedIn: monique-oude-luttikhuis), who translated the original text in Dutch into English.

Freelance editor, proofreader and translator Tyler Langendorfer (website: www.aegistranslations.com; LinkedIn: tlangendorfer) joined SENSE a few months ago. He is a native English speaker based in Berlin, Germany, but works in an astonishing number of languages including Dutch, French, German, Russian, Spanish, and Ukrainian. I reached out to him to know more about his background and about the key to mastering so many languages. Here’s what he said. 

Can you tell us a bit about where you are from and why you decided to settle in Germany?

I’m originally from New Hampshire in the US. I had long wanted to move to Berlin since I first visited the city in 2005 (this became my main motive for learning German), and around 2016 I finally managed to find a career that would eventually enable me to do so. When I first visited Berlin, I was really impressed by the urban landscape and the great views you could get from the above-ground train (S-Bahn) and became fascinated with its history – sombre in some respects, inspiring in others. In subsequent visits I was able to get a strong sense of what made the cultural scene and nightlife I had heard and read so much about so appealing. Since I moved to Berlin, one thing that has really stood out for me (and is perhaps its most underrated aspect) is the natural environment – there’s an abundance of lakes and parks within the city limits, and Berlin is notable for its biodiversity – not only when compared with other German cities, but with the entire country.

You have an MA in culture, policy and management, and a BA in English literature and in Spanish. Were these achievements conducive to permanent employment or were you willing to become a freelancer?

I’ve applied to some permanent positions in the past, but freelance work has always been my main focus. I’m sure every one of my degrees has helped me to some extent.

Can you describe the kind of projects you are working on?

Right now, I’m translating a non-fiction book for adolescents about robotics and current trends in science. I’m also editing a colleague’s translation of a novel before he sends it off to a publisher and I have been commissioned to translate a couple of poems by a Ukrainian poet.

Have you been to the Netherlands? How did you learn Dutch?

Yes, I spent a life-changing exchange semester abroad in Utrecht in 2005. I’ve been back to the Netherlands several times since then, including a one-month stay in 2021. I started learning to read Dutch about eight years ago (I only took a very basic course when I studied in Utrecht) using flashcards and a grammar book. As with most of my language combinations, my strength with Dutch lies in reading comprehension rather than in other areas, though I am working on improving my conversation skills.

Of all the languages that you master, which are your preferred ones? Why?

To be honest, that’s a difficult question to answer. A few years ago, I might have said German, French, and Russian, but over the past couple of years (during which I learnt to read Ukrainian) my preferences seem to have often been in flux. In general, there is a lot of parity among them. My appreciation for Dutch has continued to grow, and since there are a lot of Ukraine-related events happening in Berlin these days, Ukrainian (along with German) gets the most attention outside of work.

How did you learn about SENSE and why did you decide to join?

I first heard about SENSE when I saw online that another Dutch to English translator was a member. I hope to spend more time in the Netherlands in the future, and joining SENSE seemed like a good way to increase my connections with the country without having to relocate from Berlin.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I try to make time every day for reading books and studying languages, either improving the ones I can already read or learning new ones. Both hobbies are essential for my well-being. Learning languages is difficult, but I don’t consider it a chore. I also like to travel (preferably by train), attend talks, concerts and film showings, and I try to explore different parts of Berlin whenever I can.

I have a feeling that you are a good reader. Have you read something interesting recently?

That’s what I’ve been told. I just finished a book that I feel obligated to recommend despite its grim subject matter: ‘My Fourth Time, We Drowned’ by the journalist Sally Hayden. It’s about the gross human rights violations and tragedies that refugees (mostly African) have to endure as they attempt to make their way to Libya and across the Mediterranean, and how the immigration policies of the EU and its member states have only made the situation far worse. It’s a very brave book that draws attention to the plight of people who are increasingly the focus of demonizing rhetoric.

On 23 March, I had the pleasure of attending my first SENSE Annual General Meeting (AGM) and in-person SENSE event. I joined SENSE in 2023 to participate in the mentorship program (which I highly recommend) and have participated in many of SENSE’s virtual events. Though I’m currently located in the US, my goal is to eventually move to the EU. The AGM presented the perfect opportunity to network with SENSE members, explore Utrecht, and learn more about living and working as a foreigner in the Netherlands.

At its surface, the AGM is a chance to swear in new members of the Executive Committee (EC), vote on motions, and address any outstanding business. However, it is also a chance for SENSE members to come together, share updates about their year, discuss changes in the industry, and enjoy a day of camaraderie with fellow English-language professionals.

The pre-meeting

The AGM was held at Park Plaza in Utrecht. Before the meeting, attendees met for coffee, tea, and a book exchange. Despite it being a gathering of English-language professionals, the books displayed by those gathered spanned the gamut of languages and genres. Both the book exchange and the social hour were a great way for us to get acquainted, excited and caffeinated for the meeting.

The meeting

The AGM was attended by 31 members from around the Netherlands and abroad. Some of the highlights of the meeting included the following:

• Sally Hill, current SENSE Chair, announced that she would be stepping down at the 2025 AGM.
• Samuel Murray was unanimously sworn in for another term on the EC, with the title Web Manager. Alison Gibbs was unanimously sworn in as the new Audit Committee reserve.
• Several new Team Leaders were introduced, including myself (Social Media Coordinator), Lizzie Kean (CPD Coordinator), and Becky Tomas (SIG and Social Events Coordinator).
• The SENSE website is currently being updated, and a new version of the site will be released in 2024.

In addition to the planned meeting itinerary, we also had several interesting discussions about the current state of the industry, including the following:

• The role that AI will play in the editing and translating fields going forward.
• The financial protections for freelancers when agencies go bankrupt, with a focus on whether the Covenant had any specific guidelines.

In general, the AGM was a wonderful way for members to learn more about the workings of SENSE and to see the hard work that has contributed to making SENSE the wonderful organization it is today.

The post-meeting

Following the meeting, we were invited to the hotel lobby for drinks and discussions, and then a small group continued on to dinner at a restaurant nearby. The events following the meeting allowed members to network with new colleagues and catch up with old ones, all while enjoying delicious food and beverages.

The incredible network of mentors, colleagues, friends and fellow language nerds that SENSE has assembled is never so apparent as it is during these events. I am very grateful that I was able to attend, and I look forward to more AGMs in the years to come.

Written by: Lloyd Bingham
Published: 25-06-2024

SENSE and the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI)’s Dutch Network are delighted to partner up and support the Utrecht Unconference. This all-day event will take place on Saturday 9 November 2024 at In De Ruimte, an inspiring location on Utrecht’s Oudegracht – a venue you might remember from the SENSE Annual General Meeting (AGM) in 2019.

You probably know what a conference is, but what on earth is an unconference? The exact opposite of a conference? Well sort of, but not quite.

Like a regular conference, an unconference brings fellow professionals together to discuss topics of mutual interest. But it differs by harnessing the collective experience and expertise of all attendees, rather than a single presenter.

We will be following the model of the tried-and-tested Cardiff Translation Unconference, the brainchild of one of my colleagues, Juliet Haydock. She saw the concept in tech circles and wondered why no one had thought to bring it to the translation sector. Juliet then asked me and three fellow Cardiff-based translators – Alexandra Chapman, Jason Shilcock and Victoria Burns – to help her make it a reality. Since then, it’s not been just a reality, but a huge success, with 60 attendees descending on Insole Court, a manor house in the west of the Welsh capital, for three years running.

After discussion in the ITI Dutch Network, Jenny Zonneveld and I decided to bring this concept to the Netherlands. The Utrecht Unconference is aimed specifically at editors, translators and interpreters. All attendees will be asked in advance to suggest a topic for discussion, which can be anything related to your professional practice, in English or Dutch. On the day, we will vote on which topics to then discuss as a group. We are aiming for four hour-long sessions throughout the day, comprising three simultaneous discussions (in different rooms) of around 15–20 people each. Attendees are free to attend any session.

No one is expected to present anything. PowerPoint is not only discouraged, but outright banned. The person who suggested a topic that is chosen simply needs to briefly introduce it, explaining why they chose it and what they hope to get out of the discussion. Then we let the conversation flow! A facilitator will be on hand to help and ensure everyone gets as much out of the experience as possible.

So, a rather different concept and one you might still be unsure about, but trust us… by the end of the day, you’ll wonder why we haven’t done an unconference sooner! You can read reports and see pictures of previous unconferences in Cardiff here.

The price for SENSE and the ITI Dutch Network members will be €79, including refreshments, lunch and a borrel to round off the day. The cost for non-members will be €99. Registration will open on 1 July. As the Cardiff Translation Unconference typically sells out within a week, we suggest getting in quickly!

Tot ziens in Utrecht!

Written by: Claire Niven
Published: 11-06-2024

Let’s look at some grammar rules that have been slowly changing… or maybe it feels like things have been changing so quickly that it’s hard to keep up. As the former copy chief of Random House Benjamin Dreyer says, ‘one can either be on the bus or under the bus’. So, I suggest we buy a ticket and get on board!

What is the singular ‘they’?

The singular ‘they’ is a gender-neutral, third-person pronoun. Until recently, lots of editors (and style guides) clung to the notion that ‘they’ was only plural. This was often at odds with how people were actually speaking.

A person should enjoy their holidays.

The noun in this sentence is the singular ‘person’, and the pronoun is the third person plural ‘their’. This doesn’t stack up grammatically in terms of the agreement between singular and plural words. It was considered an error by traditional grammatists and deemed less appropriate in formal writing. But this structure was commonly used in English every day.

To avoid the plural pronoun, writers had to resort to awkward phrases like ‘he and she’ or, worse still, ‘s/he’. A person should enjoy his or her holiday.

As well as sounding clunky, this second sentence also gives us another problem. It presumes that the person uses either ‘he’ or ‘she’ pronouns. But not everyone identifies as male or female, so it’s important to avoid these binary representations of gender.

Singular ‘they’ for a known person

While the singular ‘they’ has been in wide usage as a third-person pronoun for a person of unspecified gender, most style guides now advocate for singular ‘they’ as a non-binary identifier for a specific person. This is because it’s inclusive of all people and helps to avoid assumptions about gender. The American Dialect Society chose the singular ‘they’ as their Word of the Year in 2015, defining it as ‘a gender-neutral singular pronoun for a known person, as a non-binary identifier’. Merriam-Webster added the non-binary ‘they’ to its dictionary in 2019.

How to use it in practice

When a singular ‘they’ is the subject of a sentence, ‘they’ takes a plural verb regardless of whether ‘they’ is meant to be singular or plural. For example, write ‘they are’, not ‘they is’. It’s the same if a person identifies as gender neutral or non-binary, with ‘they’ as a pronoun. For example, ‘I really like Sam. They always have something fun to say.’

Think of it like this – the singular ‘they’ works similarly to the singular ‘you’ – even though ‘you’ may refer to one person or multiple people. You would never write ‘you is’ instead of ‘you are’. So, if the noun in a sentence is a word like ‘individual’ or a person’s name, you use a singular verb. For example, Sarah is a gender-fluid person, not Sarah are a gender-fluid person.

The singular ‘they’ also encompasses the use of the related pronouns and determiners them, their, theirs and themselves. In ‘The Chicago Manual of Style’ 17th edition, section 5.48, it says ‘themself (like yourself) may be used to signal the singular (though some people will prefer themselves)’.

How to avoid using it and should you?

Some people might ask, what if I don’t like the singular ‘they’ – do I have to use it? It’s a valid question.

I would answer that if you are writing about a person who uses ‘they’ as their pronoun, then yes, you have to use it. Respectful and inclusive language is important.

However, there are many other ways to write grammatical and inclusive sentences.

For example, you can rewrite a sentence in the plural to use plural pronouns: People should enjoy their holidays.

Or you can rewrite the sentence so that it does not use pronouns at all. A person should enjoy holidays or Holidays should be enjoyable.

It’s worth noting that the ‘Trans Journalists Association Stylebook and Coverage Guide’ says that it is both unnecessary and disrespectful to take pains to write around using someone’s pronouns, such as to avoid the singular they. They say: ‘Avoiding pronouns is almost always more conspicuous to the reader than using they/them.’

Inclusive language isn’t merely a matter of grammar; it’s a reflection of respect and acknowledgment of diverse identities.

Further reading

This article about the struggle with the singular ‘they’ is very interesting: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/articles/old-they-new-they-language-change-in-action/

Trans Journalists Association’s Stylebook and Coverage Guide
https://styleguide.transjournalists.org/?ref=transjournalists.org#subsection-pronouns

APA style
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/grammar/singular-they

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/grammar/pronouns/gendered_pronouns_and_singular_they.html

Written by: Kate Mc Intyre
Published: 28-05-2024

Interactive generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools fuelled by large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT have rapidly been adopted by scientific researchers worldwide. Given the surprising facility of the newest generations of these tools to generate and refine texts, a number of scientific journals, publishers and related organizations have now established rules that generative AI tools cannot be listed as co-authors because they cannot be held accountable for the content. Beyond that restriction, however, many publishers and journals have taken a pragmatic approach in which authors may use these tools as long as they transparently acknowledge their use and account for how they used them (whether in writing, summarizing, editing, coding, etc.)

Dr Vasiliki (Vicky) Mollaki’s online presentation to UniSIG ‘Generative AI cannot be an author but... can it be a reviewer? Beyond publishing policies on AI’ on 26 April 2024 covered the evolving ethical landscape around another potential use of generative AI tools – peer review. The capacity of these tools to rapidly summarize and even critique text makes them tempting helpmates for reviewers, but this brings up ethical and legal questions about the integrity of the review provided and whether reviewer use of a tool could violate data security or privacy laws or author confidentiality and proprietary rights.

At the core of Vicky’s talk was her research exploring the rules that have been established so far and what needs to happen in the future. Her work was inspired by a triggering event in which an author at a journal where she is an editor brought it to the editorial team’s attention that one review appeared to be written using a generative AI tool. This was both a concern for the author and a challenge for the editors because at that time there was neither a protocol for what to do in this scenario nor a clear source of guidance.

Vicky’s subsequent research into what guidelines were already in place found that only two of the ten largest scientific publishers had stated policies on generative AI use by reviewers, while the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) only provided guidelines for author use and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) has updated its guidelines to cover use by editors and reviewers (see links below).

As Vicky carefully laid in out her presentation, this raises many questions. While the rules developed for reviewer tool use could follow the full disclosure model applied to authors, given the privacy and legality issues, it might even be necessary to ban the use of generative AI by reviewers. Either scenario begs the very difficult question of how journal editors or authors would detect and prove violations of the rules. It also requires that there be ways to enforce rules and consequences for violators. This sounds draconian, but as Vicky highlighted, not addressing this issue could jeopardize reviewer autonomy, the trust relationship between reviewers and editors, and authors’ trust in the peer review process.

Vicky’s talk was delivered online from a warm but dusty Athens to an avid audience of blanket- and scarf-clad participants spread across northern Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Finland. The subsequent discussion was lively, with participants discussing the challenge of how to identify if a reviewer used generative AI, the policies that funding agencies have developed about their use in review, and even a possible future in which smaller journal-based AI LLM tools are built into the review process so that reviewers can access their benefits while still respecting authors’ rights.

Dr Vasiliki (Vicky) Mollaki is a scientific officer at the National Commission for Bioethics and Technoethics in Athens. She has degrees in genetics from Cardiff and Sheffield universities. Dr Mollaki is on the editorial board of the journal Bioethica and has been an external ethics expert in the European Commission since 2016.

Links

Mollaki, V. (2024). ‘Death of a reviewer or death of peer review integrity? the challenges of using AI tools in peer reviewing and the need to go beyond publishing policies’. Research Ethics, 20(2), 239–250. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470161231224552

World Association of Medical Editors statement on ‘Chatbots, Generative AI, and Scholarly Manuscripts – WAME Recommendations on Chatbots and Generative Artificial Intelligence in Relation to Scholarly Publications’. https://wame.org/page3.php?id=106

Committee on Publication Ethics statement on ‘Authorship and AI tools’. https://publicationethics.org/cope-position-statements/ai-author

The Dutch Research Council on ‘NWO’s preliminary position on generative AI in the application and review process’. https://www.nwo.nl/en/nwos-preliminary-position-on-generative-ai-in-the-application-and-review-process