Missing Manuscript
Sir: It appears, judging from one sentence in your remarks (Notebook, 14 November) about the difficult business of how to include women when writing about man in general, that you approve of the term Ms. Yet women, in representing themselves as ashamed to be called Miss (why?) and substituting Ms, undermine their freedom of movement by lack of humour. For the term is ludicrous. In the first place, it cannot be pronounced: two consonants cannot be spoken aloud. If Ms is short for Miss we might as well say Miss. But it is not short for Miss, it is short for Manuscript. When you write to your publisher you say, Here is my MS'; when you speak to him you refer to your manuscript. It is all very well to write Ms Jones, but at a party we ought to introduce her as Manuscript Jones.
John Stewart Collis
Park House, Abinger Common, Dorking, Surrey
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