what does one use as a generic pronoun?

College Essays
1

<p>One of my statements for an essay is, "The ideal scholar is the eccentric and compassionate thinker." (As opposed to a conformist / distant / purely career-driven ivory tower intellectual etc.) </p>

<p>Of course, I want to continue elaborating, but it gets unwieldy if I continuously use "he or she" (it disrupts the rhythm). First, I wanted to use a generic "he", but now I am contemplating a generic "she" too. Of course, since I am a male applicant, they won't think me strange (or maybe they should, considering my essay topic) if I do the latter?</p>

2

<p>aren't you supposed to say "one" . wait.. i dunno if that makes sense. just an idea though, like how u used it in the thread title.</p>

3

<p>I guess you could just say, "Ideal scholars are eccentric and passionate thinkers. They..."</p>

4

<p>I saw in another thread that you do Lincoln-Douglas style debate. One of my friends does LD and he shows me his cases sometimes: I've noticed that he does all sorts of weird stuff with his pronouns. Sometimes he uses "she" randomly just to mix it up; he'll switch back and forth a few times within one case. </p>

<p>Umm. Anyways, I think that either way is fine. Personally, I'd probably say "he or she" the first time and continue with "he." I'm sure that you could do the same with "she," though, as long as it isn't distracting.</p>