AboutDan Smith Expertise I have been a professional writer and editor for more than 30 years, taught speech and English composition at the university level, and have developed speech and English composition courses and seminars for businesses. I am experienced in editing a wide variety of materials, especially business, scientific, and other academic papers. I am familiar with all the major style guides.
Experience I have edited any number of graduate papers and other technical materials in such advanced fields as civil and electrical engineering and semiconductor fabrication. I have extensive experience in working with non-native English speakers.
Question What is your position on subject complement agreement? It seems as though
more and more writers are using singular complements with plural subjects.
Do you find this acceptable? I am not a copy editor, just a highschool teacher
interested in your thoughts and ideas on this topic.
Example: The boys were driven to the hospital because they broke their arm.
While logical thinking tells us that multiple boys could not share one arm,
some argue that the plural subject [boys] needs to be paired with the plural
form of the noun [arms].
A rewrite of the first sentence--- The boys were driven to the hospital
because they broke their arms. Some would argue that this implies that each
boy driven to the hospital broke both of his arms.
Second example: Which of the following would be correct if the intended
meaning is that each child has one television set in his/her bedroom?
Many children have a television set in their bedroom.
Many children have a television set in their bedrooms.
Many children have television sets in their bedrooms.
Answer I regard such disagreements as entirely incorrect. I don't write such sentences.
In the case of the boys, the correct construction would be, "The boys were driven to the hospital because one of them had broken his arm."
I think the last sentence says it accurately and more gracefully.
You most often see such mixtures as misguided attempts to avoid sexist language. "The writer should not make their subjects and predicates disagree." Or, some variation of the godawful "his/her" construction. To avoid sexist language, just use the plural throughout. "Writers should not make their subjects and predicates disagree."
B-school faculty, especially HR, and technical writers seem particular inept in these matters. But a quick review of the language of recent B-school graduates in positions of leadership will reveal that literacy is not a primary aim of B-schools.
