literacy ..." Garner suggests that use of singular they is more acceptable in British English: "Speakers of resist this development more than speakers of , in which the indeterminate they is already more or less standard." and apparently regrets the resistance by the American language community: "That it sets many literate Americans' teeth on edge is an unfortunate obstacle to what promises to be the ultimate solution to the problem." He regards the trend toward using singular they with antecedents like everybody, anyone and somebody as inevitable: "Disturbing though these developments may be to purists, they're irreversible. And nothing that a grammarian says will change them." The Chicago Manual of Style In the 14th edition (1993) of The Chicago Manual of Style, the University of Chicago Press explicitly recommended using singular they and their, noting a "revival" of this usage and citing "its venerable use by such writers as Addison, Austen, Chesterfield, Fielding, Ruskin, Scott, and Shakespeare." From the 15th edition (2003), this was changed. In Chapter 5 of the 17th edition (2017), now written by Bryan A. Garner, the recommendations are: The American Heritage Book of English Usage (1996) According to The American Heritage Book of English Usage and its usage panel of selected writers, journalism professors, linguists, and other experts, many Americans avoid use of they to refer to a singular antecedent out of respect for a "traditional" grammatical rule, despite use of singular they by modern writers of note and mainstream publications: Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association The 7th edition of the American Psychological Association's Publication Manual, released in October 2019, advises using singular "they" when gender is unknown or irrelevant, and gives the following example: APA style also endorses using they/them if it is someone's (for example, a non-binary person's) preferred pronoun set. Strunk & White's The Elements of Style William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White, the original authors of The Elements of Style, found use of they with a singular antecedent unacceptable and advised use of the singular pronoun (he). In the 3rd edition (1979), the recommendation was still: The assessment, in 1979, was: In the 4th edition (2000), use of singular they was still proscribed against, but use of generic he was no longer recommended. Joseph M. Williams's The Basics of Clarity and Grace (2009) Joseph M. Williams, who wrote a number of books on writing with "clarity and grace", discusses