Mini Grammar Lesson of the Day: Noun/Pronoun agreement

This is a really hard lesson for me to keep short, as it is a bit complicated. Here is a link to a succinct explanation as to how to make your nouns agree with their pronouns: http://aliscot.com/bigdog/agreement_pa.htm. I would like to emphasize that in noun/pronoun agreement, you want to minimize the confusion of your audience. Please do not use "they" or "their" to refer to a singular noun (as in, "Each student should revise their paper"). The usual way to fix this is to either know the gender of the student: "Each student at the girls' school should revise her paper," or if you don't know the gender, use "his or her" or "his/her": "Each student should revise his or her paper." This can get very annoying and cumbersome. Another easy way to fix this is to re-write your sentence in the plural: "All students should revise their papers." Sometimes you just can't do this, and in those cases, choose your words very carefully and limit the number of times you use "his or her." Try to avoid using "one" like the plague; your sentences will end up sounding comical: "One should always strive to do one's best in everything one finds to do." Yuck. You can either change into 2nd person: "You should always strive to do your best..." or pick a group to speak to: "Students should always strive to do their best," or "People should always strive to do their best." On a side note, in formal writing it is usually best to avoid using 2nd person, but in informal writing (like this blog), please feel free to do so.