opinion

Bangert: Purdue silently scrubs writing tips after claims of campus ban on word ‘man’

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The curious case of a Purdue University writing lab’s guidelines that riled conservative media into somehow thinking they were taking down a full-blown, campuswide effort to ban the word “man” took another curious turn this week.

Still silent against accusations from assorted Fox News personalities that the West Lafayette campus had given into marching orders from politically correct forces, Purdue made a handful of changes to a tip sheet that gave recommendations about ways to avoid generic uses of “man” when another, more specific word would do.

By Thursday, the Online Writing Lab’s recommendations on “Gender-biased Language” – as they have for more than a decade – continued to suggest “humanity” instead of “mankind,” “synthetic” instead of “manmade,” and “the average person” instead of “the common man,” and “firefighter” instead of “fireman.”

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But gone late this week – edited out as of Feb. 28, according to time stamps on the Online Writing Lab link – were a series of explanations that came across prescriptive in nature, even if they didn’t come close to saying, “Ban on Man.”

Scrubbed were these three paragraphs:

► “Although MAN in its original sense carried the dual meaning of adult human and adult male, its meaning has come to be so closely identified with adult male that the generic use of MAN and other words with masculine markers should be avoided.”

► “Avoid the use of MAN in occupational terms when persons holding the job could be either male or female.” (Example: “mail carrier,” not “mailman.”)

► “Historically, some jobs have been dominated by one gender or the other. This has led to the tendency for a person of the opposite gender to be ‘marked’ by adding a reference to gender. You should avoid marking the gender in this fashion in your writing.” (Example: simply “nurse,” rather than “male nurse.”)

(Yes, the word “MAN” was in all-caps in the original.)

Purdue offered no explanation.

Harry Denny, director of the writing lab, referred questions to Purdue’s media relations staff. David Reingold, College of Liberal Arts dean, did not immediately return several messages this week, after telling the J&C Monday that a response from the university was in the works. Brian Zink, a university spokesman, said the administration didn’t have a comment Thursday afternoon.

The questions about “man” in the writing guidelines played out this way over the course of a week-and-a-half.

Purdue was first called out Feb. 20 by Campus Reform, an online outlet that touts itself as a site that “exposes the liberal bias and abuse against conservatives on America’s colleges and universities.” The headline: “Purdue writing guide: Words with ‘MAN’ should be avoided.”

Campus Reform knew its target and the reach of the Online Writing Lab, which started in 1994 as a resource for students on the West Lafayette campus and quickly became a national resource. The Online Writing Lab’s reach has been growing, according to the university’s own account. In a marketing piece sent out Feb. 13, Purdue touted the resources offered – from style guides to subject-specific report writing to instructional videos on how to correctly write a lab report. In 2017, the Online Writing Lab had more than 411 million page views, which was 38 percent greater than the site’s traffic in 2016, according to Purdue.

The Campus Reform piece pointed to an Online Writing Lab preamble that advised, “Writing in a non-sexist, non-biased way is both ethically sound and effective. Non-sexist writing is necessary for most audiences; if you write in a sexist manner and alienate much of your audience from your discussion, your writing will be much less effective.”

In the days that followed, Purdue revised that preamble, softening it a bit and pointing out that the Online Writing Lab’s recommendations weren’t far afield of those from other professional and academic writing guides: “Writing without gender bias is sound and effective. You should always consult your professional or disciplinary community standards or imagine what is appropriate to your rhetorical audience or genre. … We invite you to explore or ask your own professional or disciplinary organizations for guidance.” The section also pointed out that the examples that followed came from the National Council of Teachers of English.

None of that stopped a public mocking of Purdue on a number of conservative online and broadcast media outlets, earning spots on the Fox News morning show, “Fox and Friends,” and a joke-filled segment of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” where the Campus Reform piece was interpreted as an all-out ban on any word with “man” tucked in it.

Carlson famously dismissed Purdue – “an accredited university, apparently” – where it’s easy “to bully the little, rich kids who go to your school” and pay “like $60 grand, or whatever it is, for the fake diploma you get.”

(The shtick proved Carlson hadn’t exactly read the guidelines, which would have gotten in the way of the cheap jokes. And if Carlson knew much about Purdue, he would have aimed at the words of Neil Armstrong, etched in the plaza outside the engineering hall that bears the name of Purdue’s most famous graduate and first man on the moon: “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Maybe next time, Tucker.)

Purdue didn’t rise to take the bait.

But the university also didn’t make some simple explanations about what the guidelines were and what they weren’t.

Instead, Purdue seems content to let the editing do the talking on gender-neutral words and a so-called ban on the word "man."

What a weird case.

Reach J&C columnist Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.