AGLC4 Rule 1.9.3: Inclusive Language
Gender inclusive language is preferred. Singular "they" is the preferred pronoun, though "he or she" and its variants are acceptable, and gendered nouns are replaced with neutral ones. Gender specific language may remain where it conveys the intended meaning accurately.
AGLC4 page 28
Formatting
- Use they, their and them for an unspecified person; he or she, she or he, his or hers and her or him are also acceptable.
- Replace gendered expressions with neutral ones.
- Keep gender specific wording only where accuracy requires it.
Forms in the rule
Quoted from the Guide, page 28- ‘the reasonable person’
- ‘spokesperson’
- ‘humankind’
Check your footnotes against these rules
Paste your paper into the free AGLC4 checker and each footnote is graded against the Guide, with the rule it breaks. To write a citation from scratch, use the AGLC4 citation generator.
Formats, examples, passages, tables and the forms marked Not are quoted from the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association, 2018), with the page of the Guide they appear on. Titles, summaries and explanations are our own.