<p>On a “create your own question and respond to it” essay…I am simply rewording my common app essay because I feel like that essay would be stronger than writing a whole new essay. Anyways, is “Describe an important person in your life and their influence on you.” grammatically correct or should the “their” be changed to his or her’s? </p>
<p>thanks!!!</p>
<p>bump!! i just want my question to be grammatically sensible!!!</p>
<p>change it to “his or her”</p>
<p>It should be changed, technically, to his OR her’s…not both. Either way I’ve listed is going to be “politically incorrect” but grammatically very correct.</p>
<p>Describe an important person in your life and his/her influence on you.</p>
<p>thats what I would wrtie</p>
<p>never write “his or her” or “his/her” because that shows that you’re not confident in your writing style. to be grammatically correct, it has to be “his” or “her”, but NEVER both of them.</p>
<p>“Describe an important person in your life and their influence on you.” </p>
<p>It’s wrong because “person” is singular
And “their” refers to more than one person</p>
<p>So, you could also fix it:
“Describe important people in your life and their influence on you.”</p>