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Topic : Re: Should I write his/her or their? I am new in this site and I hope to convey my question in a correct manner. Any employee is also entitled to receive a reference letter. This document must - selfpublishingguru.com

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In certain circles, using "they/their" to refer to a singular person of unspecified gender, might already be commonplace. However I can assure you this new language construct is far from universally know, even for native English speakers.
So for a lot of people using "they/their" to refer to a single person just looks plain weird. I think a reference letter which looks weird to the reader is of limited use for a person. Therefore if the employee in question is just a regular, old-fashioned male or female I would just stick with "he/his" or "she/her". Only if the employee in question has a non-standard (not male or female) gender I would consider "they/their".
UPDATE 10/10/2020
Based on the comments and some of the other answers I am going to slightly change my answer. I now think that the choose of the pronoun in a reference letter should depend on the (likely) target audience of that letter. So if for instance the reference letter is going to be used to secure a position at a woke US-university, by all means use "they/their" as pronouns. However if for instance the reference letter is going to be shown to an older small-business owner or be used to secure a position in a company full of Trump-loving rednecks stick with "he/his" or "she/her".


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