Re: Use of the First Person

[Virginia Day <Virginia_Day -at- DATACARD -dot- COM>]

     Dan,

     The standards organization sounds as though it uses academic style
     standards, not business or technical writing standards. However, they
     will claim that academic scientific writing is the same as technical
     writing--it's not!   Academicians prefer third person, passive,
     nominal, complex-compound writing.  Your only problem was not having
     access to someone who could identify the difference between busniess
     technical writing standards and what you wanted to do--academic
     writing.


     Regards, Virginia


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Use of the First Person
Author:  Dan Sabin <dsabin -at- ELECTROTEK -dot- COM> at Internet
Date:    1/30/98 11:19 AM


Hi,

I'm an engineer, and I recently submitted a paper to a pretty well-known
standards organization. The reviewers rejected my paper mainly for
stylistic reasons, especially as related to my use of the first person
"we" when I was referring to myself and the other researchers on the
project.  For example, instead of saying, "The researchers found...," I
often stated "We found..."

I was surprised that the reviewers reacted so negatively to the first
person, especially as a friend who is a technical writer told me that in
most business/technical writing, it's best to avoid the third person and
passive voice. I thought using "we" would make my writing more
accessible to readers, and I wanted to avoid the stuffiness and
formalism of constantly saying "the researchers..." According to the
reviewers, using "we" in a professional document is not an acceptable
technical writing style.

I wonder what you technical writers have to say about this...Is using
"we" inappropriate in a professional report that basically summarizes my
research findings to engineering colleagues?

Just Curious,

Dan Sabin