Grammatically Correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation ...

Writing With Sensitivity
Help the reader focus on the content of your paper by avoiding
language that may cause irritation, flights of thought, or even
momentary interruptions. Such sources of distraction include
linguistic devices and constructions that might imply sexual,
ethnic, or other kinds of biases.
-PUBLICATION MANuAL oF THE AMERICAN PsYCHOLOGICAL AssociATION
A discussion on how to use language in a way that won't annoy
any of your readers-or at least not too many of them-necessarily
involves treading on delicate ground, since emotions run rather
higher here than on matters such as use of the serial comma. Would
you describe someone in a wheelchair as disabled or challenged?
Someone of a race other than Caucasian as nonwhite or a person
of color? A member of a municipal government as an alderman or
alderperson? Words that to one reader are simple descriptions may
be perceived by another as excluding, dismissive, stereotyping,
patronizing or insensitive; on the other hand, what some see as
reasonable, thought-out alternatives may be viewed by others as
euphemistic, grating or ridiculous.
If your intention is to provoke, that is one thing. More commonly,
writers are honestly oblivious to biases or irritants in the words they
have chosen, or simply feel that there is oversensitivity these days
to nuances of language and that people should accept their style
without reading too much into it. However, the AP A admonition
cited above makes a good point: Readers who are alienated by your
terms or phrasings will be less receptive to the content of what you
are saying-and that, after all, defeats the purpose. You want to
choose your words so that they act to convey your message or ideas,
290