The ability to name is a daunting power; individuals should play a role in selecting words to describe themselves.
- How To Be Politically Correct
One of my students is studying to become a police officer. All of her papers - law, culture, psychology - have to do with people. When it comes to writing about people, language is of infinite importance. Terminology which was (perhaps barely) acceptable in high school is suddenly offensive, and the proper vocabulary requires time and patience to research. She is finding out about this the hard way…. Books and websites which are 10 or even 5 years old may use terminology which is no longer appropriate, and she often has to go beyond the required reading to ensure she has the proper information.
All formal writing has to do with people. Even if you’re writing about the most inanimate object on Earth (no clue as to what that might actually be…), your writing will be read by people. In communicating with these people, you must use language which is acceptable to them. It follows that you must clearly understand the terms which are used by your readers, and how they are used.
There are a few basics which apply across the board. Leonora Billings-Harris has listed some of them here. Her best point, I think, is: If you think this is too much work, ask yourself, “If I were in the group being referred to, would I still feel this is too much work?” It’s very much worth your effort to research the words your readers would use themselves. You may find some of the words are offensive to you but the reader is, in this case, more important than the author.
Gender-sensitivity has become quite the issue for debate in recent years. It’s a good idea to know where your readers stand. For instance, some people use the ambivalent pronoun they to refer to someone who is not clearly denoted as being a man or a woman. There’s a good website about it here. Please do your research on this one. If one of my students uses they in an attempt to be inoffensive, I have no problem with that; if one of them uses the term womyn -just because they know I’m female - I mark them wrong (the sanctity of the English language is much more important to me than my gender). However, if you’re writing for a group of people who believe the term woman to be offensive, you’d best know that.
Cultural definition, physical definition, religious definition - all these things are important to research before you even begin writing.
While I’m a little skeptical about directing you to a Wiki-page, this one has some good points. It also makes one point which really appeals to me: being overly-cautious can have the opposite effect (see #5). There is such a thing as going too far. I believe political-correctness, itself, has gone too far. In attempt to be all-inclusive, we often over-describe. Before you put yourself in a position where your language might be castigated, make sure you actually need to use such description. For instance, the famous writer Neil Gaiman was born in England and now lives in the United States, has white skin and dark hair, and is of Jewish heritage; is it truly necessary to note all these things about him? I think not. All one has to do is say his name, and people will gush, “Oh, I loved his book ______!” Defining a person by their own name is always a safe bet.