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(1) is fairly old-fashioned. The old rule used to be that if you weren't of someone's gender, you used "he," but many people are now offended by this male-biased "he" stuff. (I understand some professors at Whitman are old- fashioned and prefer "he" in these cases. You should be aware of that, too, since old fashioned professors still give students get grades.)
- A student is surprised when he reads about gongs.
- A student is surprised when she reads about gongs.
- A student is surprised when he/she reads about gongs.
- A student is surprised when s/he reads about gongs.
- A student is surprised when he or she reads about gongs.
(2) is a less common alternative. I've seen it when a woman writer wants to make a political statement. But as far as I can tell, it's no better than "he."
(3),(4), and (5) are reasonably well accepted alternatives, but they get very messy when there are a lot of "he/she" things:
A person must eat his or her lunch if he or she is going to get his or her nourishment. . .
A student is surprised when they read about gongs.
What are reasonable solutions?
- Use "he or she" or if you want to be a little more uptown, use "he/she" or "s/he." Try not to use very many pronouns--especially in one sentence.
- Whenever possible, try to move everything into the plural, where gender problems don't occur:
Students are surpised when they read about gongs.
- Always be careful with generalizations of "a person," "one," "someone," "a teacher," "a golfer," "an American"--we know very little about what such abstract people do or think. It might be better in such cases to move to "I" and claim the observations, the criticisms, the reactions you want to give to someone else.