Pronoun in English without specific referent?

Question

Writing academic essays in English can be a daunting task for the EFL writer (my native language is German), but for me a very specific problem gives me headaches and leaves me sitting with a smoking brain pondering what to do now.In German there is the 3. person singular pronoun *man* which refers to no one specific referent. In German it can be used often and is not frowned upon in academic writing either.A translation as example: "One can not help but wonder about the differences between English and German."Now the *one* is where the German *man* would be written. But when I do so my professors tell me that I should watch my *ones*.The thing is, when I write an essay in English and use *one* at some point, that *one* tends to breed and propagate and all its little offspring heap themselves all over my text and I have to call an exterminator to get rid of them.Now my question is whether there is some nice and easy way to indicate an unspecified referent when writing, similar to *man*, but which is not considered to be bad or Germanic style.

Answer 1

Hi! Your statement about how "one" tends to breed and you need an exterminator made me smile :)

I am not totally sure if this would work depending on the context of your papers, but you might consider replacing "one" with other words such as "people" or "individuals" or even the very generic "some." However, I hope this might give you a little bit of guidance or some ideas to explore!

Answer 2

The short answer is no. There is no one “easy”, silver-bullet solution. What native users of English usually do to get around the problem is to use a mix of strategies that together work:

(1)   Set up the use of he or she, him or her, and his or hers by first writing a noun to refer to: For example, write If a person has a garden, he or she should water his or her garden or The owner of a garden should water his or her garden.

(2)   Pluralize the subject to allow for the use of they or their: For example, write Those who have gardens should water their gardens or the less common They who have gardens should water their gardens.

(3)   Use the passive to allow for a change in subject: For example, write A garden should be watered by its owner.

(4)   Use one:

Use of one is not incorrect. For example, write One should water one’s garden.

(5)   Use a combination of the above at the same time:

For example, write One should water his or her garden.

The best practice, however, is to use a mix of the above strategies, so that no one strategy becomes so overused and monotonous that it draws attention to itself and distracts from what is written.

Answer 3

Here are some alternative ways to start your sentences:

"It can be argued whether German or English..."

"Such an issue warrants further consideration ..."

"These situations deserve further consideration..."

"The popular alternative to__________ might be/is/..."

Hope these help! :)