Re: You VS One

[Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

As almost always, the easiest thing to do when you face one of these choices, is to use wording that avoids the problem altogether. Instead of "You must register..." or "One must register..." the simplest thing is to write "In order to vote, register before..."

There have been many possible solutions advanced on this thread. This one is the simplest solution you can use.

I know my input here is not as comedic as some, but it's the best I can do at my current level of coffee intake.  :-)


--- On Thu, 6/5/08, Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> From: Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>
> Subject: Re: You VS One
> To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Date: Thursday, June 5, 2008, 11:26 AM
> You know, one should never use one when you mean you, else
> you may
> confuse one reading one instead of you. One is best to use
> you and not
> one when meaning you, and use one only when meaning one and
> not you.
> 
> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 2:50 AM, Geoff Lane
> <geoff -at- gjctech -dot- co -dot- uk> wrote:
> > On Thursday, June 5, 2008, Keith Hansen wrote;
> > Only in America does one use "one" instead
> of "you". "One" is a
> > generic person that includes first and third persons,
> i.e. substituted
> > for "we and they", or "they and
> I". So, if you're addressing the
> > reader, "you" has always been correct.
> >
> > Occurrences of the first person in technical writing
> are limited,
> > which limits the times when we can legitimately use
> "one" in technical
> > documentation. Even when "one" is correct
> it's often clearer to use
> > the name of the group, e.g. "voters", and so
> it's rare to see "one" in
> > technical writing.
> 
> -- 
> Bill Swallow
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