Re: pronoun usage

[Dick Margulis <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net>]

Suchitra,

Here is a way to get your head around the issue: Different rhetorical
contexts require different types of diction.

When you or the marketing team are writing a news release, even though
the letterhead clearly states that the writing was done by someone at
ExampleSoft, you use third person throughout and mention the company
name as often as possible. The intent is that the recipient will publish
the release as if it were an impartial report written by a reporter
about your company.

Now here comes the tricky part: If you publish the release on your own
site, you are going to leave it in third person. Essentially, you're
saying, "Here is a release we sent out, and it has crossed the wire, so
now we can publish it (lterally, make it available to the public)
ourselves."

So the part of your Web site that consists of published releases will
continue to be in third person. The rest of your site, though, is more
akin to a brochure. Therefore, the question is, what person would you
use when writing a brochure about your company? (I don't know the answer
to that one. I'd certainly be pushing for first person, but in many
companies that would be impermissible.) I like your "'We are
ExampleSoft, an innovative whatever.' or 'At ExampleSoft, we do great
things'" approach, by the way.

So long as the brochure-type parts of your site are internally
consistent, they do not have to be consistent with the news release-type
parts of your site.

Good luck,

Dick

Suchitra Kumar wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> I write content for our corporate website. I am a little confused as to
> whether I should use "we" or the company name while writing.
> 
> Normally, the management/ marketing team sends across some data or material
> for the website and also point out what they want highlighted. I then
> proceed to actually "write" the content.
> 
> ALL their stuff has "ExampleSoft is an innovative software company.
> ExampleSoft offers these services",etc.
> My tendency is to rewrite it as "We are an innovative software company. We
> offer these services".
> 
> However, they pointed out that the company name was not appearing in the
> text. So I changed it to start with an introduction "ExampleSoft is an
> innovative whatever." I put that in separate formatting as an introduction.
> Then the following text is all "We do this. Our solutions are this"
> 
> Then they came back to me to say that the usage should be consistent
> throughout, no third person confusion. I thought the argument was valid. So
> my final version was to use the introduction as "We are ExampleSoft, an
> innovative whatever." or "At ExampleSoft, we do great things". That made
> things simple.
> 
> But I've seen some websites use a combination of company name and we. It
> "sounds" normal when I read it, but that could just be my ignorance. Any
> thoughts??
>

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

Sponsored by Cub Lea, specialist in low-cost outsourced development
and documentation. Overload and time-sensitive jobs at exceptional
rates. Unique free gifts for all visitors to http://www.cublea.com

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.