Anthony’s Dilemma Story response After reading your discussion question answer, I have to agree with your classmates about it sounding sexist. You wrote you’re posting the same way you would talk to another person face to face. However, when you are communicating online, it is important to use inclusive language when you write it so it won’t sound as if you are speaking to specific people or genders and no one in your audience is singled out.
There were several mistakes in the content of your post. First of all, you addressed all of your classmates as “guys”. Since you have classmates from different genders and diversities it may have been more appropriate to use terms that embrace all of those differences. Perhaps, you could have addressed your class as “everyone” or “everybody”. Next, your text suggested you were amazed that you learned some good pointers on etiquette from a business lady.
You could have made your statement and not included the fact that the presenter was a female. You also made a statement that the managers were at the company picnic with their wives, suggesting that you were practicing your netiquette techniques among an audience entirely made of male managers. Lastly, you suggested improving etiquette to any man wanting to advance in the business world. You could have used a sentence that speaks to everyone instead of just men.
In the future, always remember to speak to your classmates using phrases that are gender neutral or you may try to communicate to your classmates using their names also, when speaking to a diverse group avoid using words that sound stereotypical. For example, instead of saying guys, you can speak to all of the people in your audience by using words like everyone or they. Anthony, I wouldn’t get bent out of shape about it. I would use this experience to remind you how important using inclusive language is and how it affects the classmates you are communicating with.
