RE: You VS One

["Lauren" <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>]

> From: Combs, Richard

> Lauren wrote: 
>  
> > I think that they are both yucky.
> > 
> > The first person imperative is,
> > "Register by October 15 to vote in the November election."
> 
> That's second person imperative. The implied subject is "you" -- the
> person to whom the sentence is addressed.

Okay.  It's second.  Don't ask me to do math, I'll screw that up, too.  I'm
not a grammarian, so get jacked on some of the grammar lingo.
 
> There is no first person imperative (well, maybe the voice in my
> head...).

That's the one that keeps me company. ;-)

> > "Voters who want to vote in the November election, must register by
> > October
> > 15."
> 
> That's third person -- which is fine, but it makes the subject someone
> other than the person to whom the sentence is addressed. Thus it
> doesn't, in Leonard's words, "draw the reader into the text or evoke a
> response from the reader." 
> 
> It also has a slight logic problem: they're not voters before they
> register. And that comma has got to go. 

I just noticed that the concept "voters" does not exist before the "person
who wants vote" has registered.  (The comma was an error in copy-and-paste
that I just addressed.)

So, "voters" should be "people" in that sentence.

If the sentence should be, what was that?, second-person imperative? then,

"To vote in the November election, register by October 15."

But I don't like that hokey structure and I prefer the action followed by
the subject, like in my first example.

Whatever...

Lauren


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