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In a recent review of Liberty’s Blueprint: How Madison and Hamilton Wrote the Federalist Papers, Defined the Constitution, and Made Democracy Safe for the World, Mark D. McGarvie praises the author, Michael I. Meyerson, for his

“considerable insight into the intellectual and political history of the constitutional era…”

and for providing

“a good account of how Hamilton conceived of the project of writing the Federalist Papers.”

But he faults Liberty’s Blueprint for:

“…a few grammatical errors, such as the use of plural pronouns with singular noun referents on pages 21 (“their”–”each member”) and 27 (“their”–”army”). It is hard to correct students’ errors when assigned texts include examples of the same mistakes.”

Presumably, in addition to Liberty’s Blueprint, McGarvie would dismiss the following works for their use of plural pronouns with singular noun referents, since it is hard, too, to correct students’ errors when these following works of literature include examples of the same mistakes:

Shakespeare:

“There’s not a man I meet but doth salute me
As if I were their well-acquainted friend…”

“Now leaden slumber with life’s strength doth fight;
And every one to rest themselves betake,
Save thieves, and cares, and troubled minds, that wake.” (LL)

Jane Austen:

“Perhaps, then, you would bestow it as a reward on that person who wrote the ablest defence of your favourite maxim, that no one can ever be in love more than once in their life — your opinion on that point is unchanged, I presume?”

George Eliot:

“I shouldn’t like to punish anyone, even if they‘d done me wrong.”

Walt Whitman:

“…everyone shall delight us, and we them.”

J. D. Salinger (from The Catcher in the Rye):

“He’s one of those guys who’s always patting themself on the back.”

Doris Lessing:

“And how easy the way a man or woman would come in here, glance around, find smiles and pleasant looks waiting for them, then wave and sit down by themselves.”

C. S. Lewis:

“She kept her head and kicked her shoes off, as everybody ought to do who falls into deep water in their clothes.”

Oscar Wilde:

“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.”

And, of course, an example that McGarvie, a legal scholar, has no doubt encountered in the Articles of the Confederation:

“Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy…” (The Federalist, 1888, p. 563)

(more)

This usage is common in everyday language, too, such as:

“Somebody gave me directions, but they didn’t tell me where to go.”

“Each person has the right to eat their pancakes.”

In fact, as Geoffrey K. Pullum points out, singular they is often clearer and preferable. For instance, the following sentences would be rendered more unclear if we followed McGarvie’s rule:

“Any employee who wants their office repainted…”

“Every writer has their own style…”

“If either your father or your mother breaks their hip…”

If we were to follow McGarvie’s usage guidelines for singular they (and the advice of most style manuals), we would find ourselves saying

“Any employee who wants his or her office repainted…”

“Every writer has his or her own style…”

“If either your father or your mother breaks his or her hip…”

McGarvie’s made-up grammar rule renders these sentences more cumbersome, and would require three or four sentences of caveats that would follow the last sentence. (“Which parent?” “Why’d your mom break your dad’s hip?” etc.) If the point of McGarvie’s rule, and the style guides from which it came, is to promote clear communication, then it fails. The rules of grammar are not found in style guides, usage manuals, or even your English classes. They are found in your brain. And they’ve been there since before your first day of school, before the first time your parents corrected your usage, and practically before you even uttered a single word.

In fact, you probably read the title of the post and didn’t even notice the singular they.

The problem, as should be plainly evident, isn’t with singular they. It’s with McGarvie’s definition of “grammatical mistake.” If every speaker of English uses singular they, and if the English language’s greatest literary figures have been using singular they for hundreds of years, and if singular they is found in one of the documents to which Mark D. McGarvie himself owes his profession, then what, exactly, makes singular they a grammatical error, poised to corrupt the linguistic and literary well-being of his students?

Annals of Medicine: The Itch: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
When I talk about forest fires, you don’t feel a burning sensation. But when I talk about itching, suddenly, you do…

Reason Magazine – Does the Invisible Hand Need a Helping Hand?
A behavioral economist explores the interaction of moral sentiments and self-interest.

The day of judgment – The Guardian
End-time thinking – the belief in a world purified by catastrophe – could once be dismissed as a harmless remnant of a more superstitious age. But with the rise of religious fundamentalism, prophets of apocalypse have become a new and very real danger, argues Ian McEwan.