Gender, race, and ethnicity are among the most frequent challenges to a writer seeking to find common ground with readers, but you will face many others as well.
Age
Mention age if it is relevant, but be aware that age-related terms can carry derogatory connotations (matronly, well-preserved, and so on). Although describing Mr. Fry as elderly but still active may sound polite to you, chances are Mr. Fry would prefer being called an active seventy-eight-year-old—or just a seventy-eight-year-old, which eliminates the unstated assumption of surprise that he is active at his age.
Class
Take special care to examine your words for assumptions about class. In a New York Times column, for example, a young woman wrote about losing her high-paying professional job. Unable to find other “meaningful work,” as she put it, she was forced to accept “absurd” jobs like cleaning houses and baby-sitting.
The column provoked a number of angry letters to the Times, including this one: “So the young and privileged are learning what we of the working classes have always understood too well: there is no entitlement in life. We have always taken the jobs you label ‘absurd.’ Our mothers are the women who clean your mothers’ houses.”
As a writer, then, do not assume that all your readers share your background or values—that your classmates all own or even want to own cars, for instance. And avoid using any words—redneck, old money, and the like—that might alienate members of an audience.
Geography
Geography does not necessarily determine personality, politics, or lifestyle. New Englanders are not all thrifty and tight-lipped; people in “red states” may hold liberal social and political views; midwesterners are not always polite. Check your writing carefully to be sure it doesn’t make such simplistic assumptions.
Check also that you use geographic terms accurately:
| AMERICA, AMERICAN | Although many people use these words to refer to the United States alone, such usage will not necessarily be acceptable to people from Canada, Mexico, and Central or South America. |
| BRITISH, ENGLISH | Use British to refer to the island of Great Britain, which includes England, Scotland, and Wales, or to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In general, do not use English for these broader senses. |
| ARAB | This term refers only to people of Arabic-speaking descent. Note that Iran is not an Arab nation; its people speak Farsi, not Arabic. Note also that Arab is not synonymous with Muslim or Moslem (a believer in Islam). Most (but not all) Arabs are Muslims, but many Muslims (those in Pakistan, for example) are not Arab. |
Physical ability or health
When writing about a person with a serious illness or disability, ask yourself whether mentioning the disability is relevant to your discussion and whether the words you use carry negative connotations. You might choose, for example, to say someone uses a wheelchair rather than to say he or she is confined to one. Similarly, you might note a subtle but meaningful difference between calling someone a person with AIDS rather than an AIDS victim. Mentioning the person first and the disability second, such as referring to a child with diabetes rather than a diabetic child or a diabetic, is always appropriate. In addition, remember that people with disabilities may well resent the use of euphemisms like “physically challenged” because such terms can minimize the importance of a disability.
Religion
Religious stereotypes are very often inaccurate and unfair. For example, Roman Catholics hold a wide spectrum of views on abortion, Muslim women do not all wear veils, and many Baptists are not fundamentalists—so beware of making generalizations based on religion. In fact, many people do not believe in or practice a religion at all, so be careful of such assumptions. As in other cases, do not use religious labels at all unless they are relevant.
Sexual orientation
If you wish to build common ground, do not assume that readers all share one sexual orientation—that everyone is attracted to the opposite sex, for example. As with any label, reference to sexual orientation should be governed by context. Someone writing about Senator Tammy Baldwin’s or Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’s economic views would probably have no reason to refer to either person’s sexual orientation. On the other hand, someone writing about diversity in U.S. government might find it important to note that Baldwin became the first openly gay person elected to the Senate in 2012.
Considering Disabilities: Knowing your readers