from Rules for Writers

1. Unbiased Language
“Nothing reveals ignorance and
prejudice more quickly than people’s
spoken and written language.” (CWR)

2. Recognizing Stereotypes
 Stereotypes are a part of everyday culture.
 Are all stereotypes bad?
 Edit your writing to avoid stereotypes.
 Generalized references about gender, age, race,
ethnicity, and sexual preference should be
eliminated.
 Like most teenage drivers, he was reckless.
 Like so many of his race, Michael Jordan is a superb
athlete.
 Frank Peters, now in his late seventies but still alert,
remembers the winter of 1942.

3. Recognizing Stereotypes
 Also avoid pronoun assumptions.
 The medical doctor is an important figure in many
communities because he is the first line of
defense in stopping flu outbreaks.
 Avoid clichés.
 It was a little, podunk farming community.
 Trailer trash moved in next door.
 When can you use a stereotype?
 What if it’s a nice one?
 What if the piece of writing calls for it?

4. Group Labels
 Use the name the group chooses for itself.
 Check current practice as they can and do change.
 Use person centered language
 A child who is quadriplegic vs. a quadriplegic
 Gender:
 Women—not ladies or girls
 Sexual Orientation:
 Heterosexual (don’t use “normal”)
 Homosexual
 Bisexual and transgendered

5. Group Labels
 Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, Religion
 African American
 Asian American
 Hispanics, Latino, or Chicano
 Native American or specific tribe/nation
 Muslim, Buddhist
 Age
 Use senior citizen
 Use specific age

6. Non-sexist Language
 Pronoun reference (covered previously)
 Universal terms:
 Humanity, the human race, people vs. mankind
 Occupational terms (focus on occupation, not
gender):
 Waiter/waitress—server
 Policeman—police officer
 Salesman—sales person or representative
 Congressman—representative

7. Non-biased Language (Word Choice)
While you do want a logos appeal (of sorts) in your paper,
make sure you do it with unbiased, objective wording.
Take for example the sentence:
 "We must stop the senseless slaughter of cucumbers for
the vanity of consumers" (Tomlinson 3).
While it certainly is an appeal (no pun intended:) to the
readers' emotions, it also shows a direct bias on the part
of the author--senseless? slaughter? vanity?--all imply a
negative stance. Using a stat from an expert would be
better.

8. Non-biased Language (Word Choice)
—part 2
"30 million cucumbers a year are extruded, peeled, and cored every
year for use in the consumers' pursuit of a more youthful appearance"
("Cukes are vegetables, too" 6a).
Okay--that's better, we've got a stat. However, the verbs "extruded,
peeled and cored" are almost violent, and the "pursuit" is almost
scorned by the stat provider. Notice that the writer has gone from
the first person "we" in the first example to using the third person in
the second example; this also serves to de-escalate the emotions.
Could we do better? A more objective stat might work.
"The cosmetics industry processes 30 million cucumbers each year“
(National Board of Vegetables Annual Report 15).

9. Non-biased Language (Word Choice)
—part 3
"The cosmetics industry processes 30 million cucumbers each year“
(National Board of Vegetables Annual Report 15).
Okay, so now we're completely unbiased--and completely boring you
might say:) The following sentence should be the example of how
that stat affects the reader--this is where your thinking comes into
play. You can create a fictional character for an example. (Melinda
will use over 2000 cucumbers in her lifetime, and no research
to date has proven cucumber scrubs to benefit the user). If you
want to see how to do this well--look at a couple of the example
papers in doc sharing--the nutrition contradiction and the
perfectionism paper are great!
Lastly, for more info on word choice, take a gander at this website:
http://www.criticalreading.com/choice_of_language.htm

10. Non-biased Language (Word Choice)
—part 3
"The cosmetics industry processes 30 million cucumbers each year“
(National Board of Vegetables Annual Report 15).
Okay, so now we're completely unbiased--and completely boring you
might say:) The following sentence should be the example of how
that stat affects the reader--this is where your thinking comes into
play. You can create a fictional character for an example. (Melinda
will use over 2000 cucumbers in her lifetime, and no research
to date has proven cucumber scrubs to benefit the user). If you
want to see how to do this well--look at a couple of the example
papers in doc sharing--the nutrition contradiction and the
perfectionism paper are great!
Lastly, for more info on word choice, take a gander at this website:
http://www.criticalreading.com/choice_of_language.htm