I really dislike the use of "they"/"their" for a gender-indefinite singular pronoun — because that they muddies the singular-plural axis, which English already struggles with in the second person, so why extend it to the third person, too?
That said, there seem to be no other viable solutions. Invented terms ("co" was big — or as big as it ever got — when I was an undergrad) will never win. He/she (et al.) will likely retain a foothold for a long time, but are clumsy enough to never really work well.
So, it seems, if old school "male means male or male and female, so get over it" is no longer acceptable, it seems like "they" will have to stand in. It's irksome, but language can get that way.
(h/t +George Wiman)
Reshared post from +Andreas Geisler
To whom it may concern, be they male, female, neither or both.
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+Dave Hill perhaps singular/plural distinctions really aren't important?
Danish has none of them on verbs, only on the pronouns… and the pronouns do not distinguish singular/plural in the third person very well at all.
Also, this will actually make English more normal. It is exceedingly odd for a language to have fewer distinctions in the second person than in the third. The third is cognitively more nondescript, so it's only fitting that it take up less brain real estate in the way of markers.
Weirdly, in some publications, "she" seems to be morphing into the gender-neutral pronoun. I think it's to avoid seeming sexist by defaulting to "he" and avoid the clunk of "s/he," "he or she," or any of the other workarounds. Given enough space, they usually try to alternate, but it still creates the occasional odd moment.
Some textbooks use just alternating he and she for generic reference.
I've seen that, +Andreas Geisler, most frequently in game rules.
It's not a bad idea, but it can also be confusing.
It's also possible to structure the writing to avoid the ambiguity (e.g., use the second person more, or else use examples for pronoun antecedents), but those may not be available in all cases or for short bits of dialog.
The TT Book covered its on this topic a month ago.
http://www.ttbook.org/book/gender
And yes, singular they sounds very off, but it appears to be a whole Millennial thing.