Gender-inclusive language - how would i write this sentence?

Question

what I want to say is "it was the individual's responsibility to question the world around him and consider the evidence for himself in a rational manner..."

but otago university is quite particular about using gender-inclusive words, even to the extent of using Godself instead of Himself.

so how would I word this sentence using gender-inclusive words? I could say "it was the individual's responsibility to question the world around them (which isn't right, as them is plural) and consider the evidence for themself??" 

Any ideas?

jiffling · Accepted Answer

Some grammar books would recognise "around them" as being accepted convention for the singular, if one wants to avoid gender. If Otago is so particular, do they not publish a 'style guide' or other form of recommendation and examples? If you really didn't want to go there, you could try "to question the surrounding world, and consider the evidence in a rational manner". The thing is, if you want to stress the individual and personal nature of this by adding "for xxxself" then - almost implicitly - you will need to face resolving that problem. I suppose you could tack on "from a personal perspective" but that doesn't sound as good as "from their own perspective" which takes you back to "their" again. Or "applying personal judgement" rather than "applying _their_ own judgement".

Gender-inclusive language - how would i write this sentence?

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