"how his past experiences influence his behaviour"

[Feline Prince]

Pfft so much fuss. There are so many ways it could easily be changed to make everyone happy i dont see what needs discussing.

[Illyria]

Seeing as it is just an avitar surely "it" would be perfectly acceptable.

Still you did

[Feline Prince]

Mob mentality. 

[Draklar]

yeah thanks all for your replies, i just thought it was a silly mistake that someone made when they typed, but you have all done so well in correcting my obvious ignorance on the topic, now i can see that it was i who blundered. i suppose for consistency, all characters should be reffered to as male from here on, because we all know they are both male and female.....

at the time, i thought it may have been more suitable to have chosen an obvious unisex term, such as the word "their" and i originally made this post to casually inform whoever typed it, so they could change it if they chose. I should have guessed the typical scenario would unfold.......... \\o//

When the characters are refered to as a collective whole or as nonspecific individuals, the male pronoun is acceptable.  "Their" is a plural possessive pronoun so it wouldn't fit in the sentence this thread was inspired by.

Ereale is right.
When the person you are refering to isn't specified and you don't know their (hah) gender, the proper pronoun is "their". Although sometimes it's also possible to use it when you actually know the gender, so long as the person hasn't been specified. So yes, it can be used as a singular form in such context.

By the way, I also found "his" dodgy. Should be either "its" or "their" I think. But I didn't think it's enough of a reason to start a new thread or bug anyone with it in general for that matter :P

[zanzibar]

Interesting.  Still seems awkward though.




http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/they.html
THEY/THEIR (SINGULAR)

Using the plural pronoun to refer to a single person of unspecified gender is an old and honorable pattern in English, not a newfangled bit of degeneracy or a politically correct plot to avoid sexism (though it often serves the latter purpose). People who insist that “Everyone has brought his own lunch” is the only correct form do not reflect the usage of centuries of fine writers. A good general rule is that only when the singular noun does not specify an individual can it be replaced plausibly with a plural pronoun: “Everybody” is a good example. We know that “everybody” is singular because we say “everybody is here,“ not “everybody are here” yet we tend to think of “everybody” as a group of individuals, so we usually say “everybody brought their own grievances to the bargaining table.” “Anybody” is treated similarly.

However, in many written sentences the use of singular “their” and “they” creates an irritating clash even when it passes unnoticed in speech. It is wise to shun this popular pattern in formal writing. Often expressions can be pluralized to make the “they” or “their” indisputably proper: “All of them have brought their own lunches.” “People” can often be substituted for “each.” Americans seldom avail themselves of the otherwise very handy British “one” to avoid specifying gender because it sounds to our ears rather pretentious: “One’s hound should retrieve only one’s own grouse.” If you decide to try “one,” don’t switch to “they” in mid-sentence: “One has to be careful about how they speak” sounds absurd because the word “one” so emphatically calls attention to its singleness. The British also quite sensibly treat collective bodies like governmental units and corporations as plural (“Parliament have approved their agenda”) whereas Americans insist on treating them as singular.

[Farren Kutter]

Zanzibar.... That was beautiful...

EDIT: Not sarcasm, BTW

[zanzibar]

What was beautiful?

[Vampire_Orchid]

Uhmmm...question...

Are you guys really getting all up tight about grammar? Or is this some femenist issue?

I'm sorry...lol...I really don't see the big deal... I am a girl and have no problem with the sentence, err or grammar for that matter. It is what it is...And that's a sentence that somebody wrote...who cares if it has some kind of hint of being sexist, or a bad grammar error...It's a sentence...it ain't gonna bite yah...

Hope my paragraph really bugs the grammar nazis hahaha!! 

[Draklar]

Still seems awkward though.

I don't know. I used it for quite a while now and it seems completely natural for me ;)

I would argue with the "one" part in that text. "Everyone will have their tickets booked" is perfectly okay, so I don't see how "one" may imply its usage with "they" would be absurd. Besides, Shakespeare used "one" with "they", so why we shouldn't? :P

It's pretty complex however. At times I'd much rather use "his", whereas another time (especially in case when person at hand is a representative of a certain group) I will find "their" more convenient.

[zanzibar]

"Think about how your characters' past experiences influence their behaviour."

Hmm.  Doesn't seem so bad now that I look at it that way.

[Raleigh]

So now we have the clash of the "Gramatically Non-awkward" X "Politically Correct", how quaint...

[bilbous]

Umm how your character's past affects your behaviour. You act for your character it has no will of its own.

The nice and confusing thing about English, many ways to reach the same meaning, many subtleties to nuance a separate meaning.

[zanzibar]

Umm how your character's past affects your behaviour. You act for your character it has no will of its own.

Yes and no.  My character does what I tell it to, but its behaviour is based on how I've written it.