At 08:34 PM 6/24/98 -0400, you wrote:
>I do have one concern about the sentence in question.  Was no one else
>troubled by the pronoun reference problem in the absolute phrase (singular
>*patient* = plural *their*)?  Have we really begun to accept a plural
>pronoun for a singular antecedent to establish gender neutrality, avoid
>using more than one pronoun (e.g. *his or her*), or avoid making all our
>antecedents plural?  As a writing teacher, I often find myself forcing my
>students to struggle with this frustrating question.

Ah, English, you who have so much power and depth and strength, lack the
neuter gender!  In these PC times, what to do?  Unfortunately, the choices
are severely limited to such stylistically inept choices such as s/he,
his/her, etc.  The result is that either we must give in to plural pronouns
referring to singuar antecedents or start a "holy war" to conquer the
metaphorically challenged.  Any bets on the winner?

Geoff Layton