WRT333-Section 1: Scientific and Technical Writing
Personal Pronouns
Week 4
In many forms of technical writing, use of personal pronouns may make stiff writing less so, often making it easier to read. Particularly when writing instructions (direct commands), use of you may help avoid awkward passive voice constructions. Note that sometimes you may be understood but not written. eg.
Bad: The shell of the eggs should be bisected on the edge of the cooking vessel and their contents decimated with a multipronged utensil.
Better: You should bisect the egg shells on the cooking vessel and decimate their contents with the multipronged utensil.
Best: Crack the eggs on the pan and scramble them with a fork.
The use of pronouns follows custom within various genres. Refereed journal articles tend to be formal, with fewer personal pronouns. Virgina Tufte* observes "Some writers of technical manuals have switched from the third person to the second person: instead of "the user should be aware that," they write "you should be aware that...., then you do this and next you do that." She also notes that despite trends toward greater informality in many forms of writing, "some articles and documents in technical, academic, and professional fields—law, some sciences, medicine, engineering, literature, history—continue to avoid first person pronounds and use other pronouns sparingly. The style sheet of Renaissance Quarterly, for example, revised in 2002, specifies: 'Please avoid the use of 'I,' 'me,' and 'my' in the text of articles.'" I suggest that when you are speaking personally, "I note that..." is as appropriate and far friendlier that "The author notes that..." and to be preferred.
Agreement The pronouns I, we, he, she, they, and who change form depending on whether they function as a subject, object, or in another way (possessive). Possessive forms of personal pronouns do not use an apostrophe. It's is a contraction for it is. Its is a possessive.
- Yours is possessive;
- your's is illiterate;
- you'se guy's is Rhode Island.
The subjective case (I, you, he | she | it, we, you, and they) is used for compound subjects and subject complements.
- Bob and she will star in the play.
- The lead performers are Nora and he.
{Don't believe it? Try the sentence with the pronouns by themselves: (She | Her) will star in the play; The lead performer is (he | him).}
The objective case (me, you, him | her | it, us, you, and them) is used for compound objects.
- First place was a tie that went to Sally and him.
An appositive is a noun or pronoun which directly takes the place of another noun or pronoun in the same sentence. An appositive pronoun takes the case of the noun it replaces.
- We sent two delegates, Kashan and her.
- Two student representatives, Kashan and she, went to the meeting.