A question came up in a class today about the indefinite-pronoun use of "one", as in "one wonders what would happen next". Several students have been taught that, once "one" is used, subsequent references must be a personal pronoun, e.g. "One should always double- check his or her quotations." I'm not finding much on this in the grammar and usage guides on my shelf; in my experience, the rule is "once 'one', always 'one' ", hence "one should always double-check one's quotations". The reasoning is that "one" is already a pronoun (which isn't particularly consistent as an explanation, since the pronouns "someone" and "everyone", etc. take a personal pronoun). I am wondering where the teachers who taught these students got this rule. I found one website which agrees with my experience of the matter. Anyone have experience of this? I enforce the "once 'one', always 'one' " rule, since I believe this is what is expected by people who care. Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics Linguistics Minor Advisor English Department California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo E-mail: [log in to unmask] Tel.: 805.756.2184 Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596 Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374 URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/