PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

This post will be a bit like “insider baseball” in that what I write deals with an esoteric subject – the “Associated Press Stylebook” (AP Style).

As a reporter for a daily newspaper many years ago, I followed the stylebook religiously as did all of those who worked with me. Plus, my boss – a friend who eventually became my partner in business – expected rigorous adherence to the AP Stylebook.

It was a bible.

To be sure, there was a rationale for it. It was an attempt to provide workable rules and regulations about newspaper writing – when to use abbreviations, when to use commas, how to refer to persons in positions of authority such as a governor or a president. And, by following the rules, writing would be clearer no matter where it appeared.

All of this has changed, both for me and for the newspaper business in general, the latter owing largely to societal changes.

Several reasons:

First, I don’t work for a newspaper anymore, so I don’t allow the rules to apply to me as they once did.

Second, I have developed my own style— my rules, if you will, which, include:

• Using few abbreviations because, often, abbreviations suggest readers know more than they do.
• Using hyphens because they make reading easier. Consider the word bipartisan. Easier to read if it is like this – bi-partisan.
• Using more commas than some language usage rules advise, including the AP Stylebook. For me, commas add to readability by specifying pauses when they are indicated – pauses that it would be possible to ignore if they weren’t there.

Third, societal norms are changing and that means writing style must change with the times.

Consider this “Letter to Readers” from Theresa Bottomly, editor of the Oregonian newspaper, which appeared a week or so ago. Here are excerpts of what she wrote:

“A pronoun in an article last week left some readers confused and others annoyed.

“Jayati Ramakrishnan, general assignment reporter, turned in a routine about the resignation of an Oregon school board member. She wrote: ‘A member of the Corvallis School Board will resign Tuesday, after they tweeted an anti-police message that the rest of the board publicly disavowed.’

“Ramakrishnan explained later in the article that the subject, Brandy Fortson, identifies as non-binary – in other words, neither male nor female. Ramakrishnan used the pronoun ‘they’ as singular, abiding by Fortson’s preference.”

Bottomly went on to report that at least one reader was confused and letters to the editor over recent days indicate that more readers than one were confused, some strong adherents to “rules of grammar.”

I was one who was confused until I read Bottomly’s letter, then understood the “binary” issue today, far different than would have the case years ago.

Bottomly defended the reporter’s usage.

“The reporter’s usage is correct. The Oregonian/OregonLive, like most newspapers, follows Associated Press style. In 2017, the AP changed its guidance to allow “they” as singular. The entry reads, in part:

“’They/them/their is acceptable in limited cases as a singular and-or gender-neutral pronoun, when alternative wording is overly awkward or clumsy.’”

Okay. An understandable change, especially given the reality of today’s gender issues. But, beyond gender, I was surprised to learn that the Stylebook recognizes the sometimes awkward or clumsy nature of singular pronouns, even though singular may be grammatically accurate.

The use of a plural pronoun to modify a singular subject always has bothered me. It was as if the writer didn’t want to pay attention to solid, accurate writing skills.

Let me provide one example.  Here is a sentence: “The committee did their work in private.” Proper usage would be, “The committee did its work in private.” Or, if that proper usage sounded tinny to the ear, use this: “Committee members did their work in private.”

Adding the word “members” allows the sentence, using a plural pronoun with a plural noun, to adhere to rules of grammar, as well as to sound better.

Bottomly’s contends that society is changing and language has to change with it.

Which means an old guy – me – also has to change. As does the AP Stylebook.

Count me as a reluctant changer, not to mention that someone who has time to right this post, has too much time on his (not their) hands.