RE: [PATCH v3 4/4] CodingGuidelines: recommend singular they

Derrick Stolee via GitGitGadget wrote:

From: Derrick Stolee <redacted>

Technical writing seeks to convey information with minimal friction. One
way that a reader can experience friction is if they encounter a
description of "a user" that is later simplified using a gendered
pronoun. If the reader does not consider that pronoun to apply to them,
then they can experience cognitive dissonance that removes focus from
the information.

The gender of the reader is never specified.

The documentation doesn't mention users in that way, only third-person
developers, reviewers, etc.

The code mentions third-person users.

Never the reader.

So it's not true the reader can experience cognitive dissonance when the
gender ofthe reader is specified, because we never do that.

Do you have an actual example?

-- 
Felipe Contreras