Q. This is from today’s op-ed column in The Washington Post: “Two top fundraisers for Newt Gingrich quit Tuesday. . . . Neither Thomas nor Heitman returned an e-mail seeking comment on their departure.” Should that pronoun be plural, really?
A. If the departure was a joint one, then “their” is apt; if the departures were individual and unrelated, “her departure” would be appropriate (to refer to Jody Thomas or Mary Heitman). If the context of the article doesn’t confirm that “their” is in fact correct, you’ll need to do some research.