If you must use "oneself," it is one word. But there's a better way.

Here is a sentence from the Sunday, September 14, edition of The Birmingham News.

A recent survey found that 82 percent of respondents considered paid sick leave for ones self a "very important" employee benefit.

You need to make a whole series of corrections to get this one right. First of all, if you must refer to "oneself," it is a one-word pronoun. It is also rather old-fashioned. Even if you did write it as two words, it would need an apostrophe (one's self).

Second, if you are speaking about respondents (plural), the word oneself (singular) is not the best pronoun choice anyway. You need to use themselves (plural) as the pronoun to refer back to the respondents, so the sentence should read this way:

A recent survey found that 82 percent of respondents considered paid sick leave for themselves a "very important" employee benefit.

I hope you agree that these changes make this a much smoother and clearer sentence.

I also hope you share this blog with your co-workers who might consider themselves fortunate to meet me through you!

Facebook Cares What Sex You Are--for Grammatical Reasons!

The Associated Press reported last week that Facebook is "getting more serious about grammar." Apparently, the online hangout has gotten itself tangled up trying to refer properly to male and female users. Therefore, it is asking users who haven't specified their gender to do so.

According to the AP release, Facebook has been guilty of using "their" to refer to one female user, as in "Debbie changed their profile picture." or the made-up word "themself" (shudder! shudder!), as in "Freddie has removed themself from that site."

The AP release points out that this issue gets even more confusing as the Facebook site expands into other languages that don't use "gender-neutral" plurals (they, them) as English does.

"People who haven't selected what sex they are frequently get defaulted to the wrong sex entirely," says Naomi Gleit, a Facebook product manager.

So, dear readers, please keep straight what gender you are and then use your pronouns accordingly! Debbie can then change HER profile picture, and Freddie can remove HIMSELF from that site.

Happy Fourth!

SELF Pronouns in the Campaign--Today's Grammar Glitch

Because I have no desire to influence anyone's vote, I won't mention which candidate, but one of the participants in the Presidential debate on ABC last Saturday evening committed the "lofty self pronoun" error several times. Here are two of the "anonymous" examples I heard:

??? and YOURSELF would agree with that statement.

??? and MYSELF voted for that legislation.

Here is the reminder about this error from one of my previous posts:

Avoid using "self" pronouns by themselves. It sounds lofty and distant to say:

Please submit your evaluations to MYSELF by Friday morning.

John and MYSELF will consider a replacement for that position.

Climb down from your high horse and use a simple pronoun instead:

Please submit your evaluations to ME by Friday morning.

John and I will consider a replacement for that position.

Presidential candidates will sound more pleasing to their potential voters if they avoid this error and say:

You and ??? would agree with that statement.

??? and I voted for that legislation.

Beware Lofty "Self" Pronouns

Avoid using "self" pronouns by themselves. It sounds lofty and distant to say:
Please submit your evaluations to myself by Friday morning.
John and myself will consider a replacement for that position.

Climb down from your high horse and use a simple pronoun instead:

Please submit your evaluations to me by Friday morning.
John and I will consider a replacement for that position.

Here is another poor example of a "self" pronoun:

This company is fortunate to have employees such as yourself who continuously strive for excellence.

A better wording would be:

This company is fortunate to have employees like you who continuously strive for excellence.


Save your "self" pronouns for these two usages:

1) Intensive: I myself would never do anything like that.

2) Reflexive: I wish I could give myself a raise.

In the coming week, I hope you will give yourself a pat on the back if you implement this usage correctly!