Using the Pronoun “You”

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Using the Pronoun “You” Why is “you” inappropriate in some types of writing? The use of “you” is acceptable in certain types of informal writing, such as personal letters and narratives. However, “you” is generally considered inappropriate in academic writing, such as papers or journals. “You” can be used… “You” looks like… ⇒ To directly address the reader • In order to catch a reader’s attention, one may try beginning one’s “You” is often used in process of paper with a sharp title. instructional essays, in which the writer ________________________________________________________ gives step-by-step instructions. • In order to catch your reader’s attention, try beginning your paper with a sharp title. ⇒ In order to personalize the writing • As a parent, one’s vote is critical to passing the proposed school tax This technique can be helpful in levy on the November ballot. persuasive writing, but only if permitted ________________________________________________________ by your professor. • As a parent, your vote is critical to passing the proposed school tax levy on the November ballot. “You” causes issues because… ⇒ It includes your readers in beliefs which they may or may not • When you listen to that CD, you have to wonder why it doesn’t get more airplay. actually share ________________________________________________________ By using “you,” you are making assumptions about the beliefs of your • When one listens to the that CD, one has to wonder why it doesn’t reader. If those assumptions are get more airplay. incorrect, you risk alienating your reader. ⇒ “You” is indefinite and imprecise • On a busy day, you can drive around for hours, just looking for a “You” is too vague and informal for place to park. academic writing, but replacing “you” ________________________________________________________ with “one” does sound much better. The easiest way to solve this issue is to • On a busy day, students can drive around for hours, just looking define who “you” or “one” is. for a place to park. .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Old English: 450 - 1150 18 August 2013
Chapter 4 Old English: 450 - 1150 18 August 2013 As discussed in Chapter 1, the English language had its start around 449, when Germanic tribes came to England and settled there. Initially, the native Celtic inhabitants and newcomers presumably lived side-by-side and the Germanic speakers adopted some linguistic features from the original inhabitants. During this period, there is Latin influence as well, mainly through missionaries from Rome and Ireland. The existing evidence about the nature of Old English comes from a collection of texts from a variety of regions: some are preserved on stone and wood monuments, others in manuscript form. The current chapter focusses on the characteristics of Old English. In section 1, we examine some of the written sources in Old English, look at some special spelling symbols, and try to read the runic alphabet that was sometimes used. In section 2, we consider (and listen to) the sounds of Old English. In sections 3, 4, and 5, we discuss some Old English grammar. Its most salient feature is the system of endings on nouns and verbs, i.e. its synthetic nature. Old English vocabulary is very interesting and creative, as section 6 shows. Dialects are discussed briefly in section 7 and the chapter will conclude with several well-known Old English texts to be read and analyzed. 1 Sources and spelling We can learn a great deal about Old English culture by reading Old English recipes, charms, riddles, descriptions of saints’ lives, and epics such as Beowulf. Most remaining texts in Old English are religious, legal, medical, or literary in nature.
[Show full text]
When to Start Receiving Retirement Benefits
2021 When to Start Receiving Retirement Benefits At Social Security, we’re often asked, “What’s the The following chart shows an example of how your best age to start receiving retirement benefits?” The monthly benefit increases if you delay when you start answer is that there’s not a single “best age” for receiving benefits. everyone and, ultimately, it’s your choice. The most important thing is to make an informed decision. Base Monthly Benefit Amounts Differ Based on the your decision about when to apply for benefits on Age You Decide to Start Receiving Benefits your individual and family circumstances. We hope This example assumes a benefit of $1,000 the following information will help you understand at a full retirement age of 66 and 10 months 1300 $1,253 how Social Security fits into your retirement decision. $1,173 $1,093 nt 1100 $1,013 ou $1,000 $944 $877 Am 900 Your decision is a personal one $811 $758 fit $708 Would it be better for you to start getting benefits ne 700 early with a smaller monthly amount for more years, y Be 500 or wait for a larger monthly payment over a shorter hl timeframe? The answer is personal and depends on nt several factors, such as your current cash needs, Mo your current health, and family longevity. Also, 0 consider if you plan to work in retirement and if you 62 63 64 65 66 66 and 67 68 69 70 have other sources of retirement income. You must 10 months also study your future financial needs and obligations, Age You Choose to Start Receiving Benefits and calculate your future Social Security benefit.
[Show full text]
The Concept of Identity in the East Midlands of England NATALIE
The Concept of Identity in the East Midlands of England NATALIE BRABER Investigating feelings of identity in East Midlands adolescents Introduction When considering dialectal variation in the UK, linguists have frequently considered the North/South divide and the linguistic markers separating the two regions (see for example Trudgill, 1999; Wells, 1986). But it has been noted that this is not a straightforward division (e.g. Beal, 2008; Goodey, Gold, Duffett & Spencer, 1971; Montgomery, 2007; Wales, 2002). There are clear stereotypes for the North and South – but how do areas like the East Midlands fit into the picture? The boundaries between North and South are defined in different ways. Beal’s linguistic North does not include the East Midlands (Beal, 2008: 124- 5), neither does Wales’ (2002: 48). Trudgill states that in traditional dialectology the East Midlands area falls under ‘Central’ dialects, which come under the ‘Southern’ branch, but in modern dialectology it falls in the ‘North’. Hughes, Trudgill and Watt (2005: 70) contains a map which has the East Midlands in the North. Linguistically, the question has been raised whether there is a clear North/South boundary (see for example Upton (2012) where it is proposed that it is a transition zone). This paper revisits this question from the point of view of young people living in the East Midlands, to examine their sense of identity and whether this cultural divide is salient to them. The East Midlands is a problematic area in its definition geographically, and people may have difficulty in relating this to their own sense of identity.
[Show full text]
Personal Pronouns, Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement, and Vague Or Unclear Pronoun References
Personal Pronouns, Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement, and Vague or Unclear Pronoun References PERSONAL PRONOUNS Personal pronouns are pronouns that are used to refer to specific individuals or things. Personal pronouns can be singular or plural, and can refer to someone in the first, second, or third person. First person is used when the speaker or narrator is identifying himself or herself. Second person is used when the speaker or narrator is directly addressing another person who is present. Third person is used when the speaker or narrator is referring to a person who is not present or to anything other than a person, e.g., a boat, a university, a theory. First-, second-, and third-person personal pronouns can all be singular or plural. Also, all of them can be nominative (the subject of a verb), objective (the object of a verb or preposition), or possessive. Personal pronouns tend to change form as they change number and function. Singular Plural 1st person I, me, my, mine We, us, our, ours 2nd person you, you, your, yours you, you, your, yours she, her, her, hers 3rd person he, him, his, his they, them, their, theirs it, it, its Most academic writing uses third-person personal pronouns exclusively and avoids first- and second-person personal pronouns. MORE . PRONOUN-ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT A personal pronoun takes the place of a noun. An antecedent is the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers. In all of the following examples, the antecedent is in bold and the pronoun is italicized: The teacher forgot her book.
[Show full text]
Thou and You in Shakespeare
Thou and You in Shakespeare Modern English has only one second person pronoun: you. But Old English had two: thou for second person singular and you for second person plural. By the 13th century, however, people began employing you as a singular pronoun to convey politeness or formality. At this stage, thou and you in English mirrored the French pronouns tu and vous or the Spanish tú and usted: one familiar, the other formal. In the early-modern English of Shakespeare’s time, thou and you could indicate fine distinctions of social status and interpersonal relationships: thou you to social inferiors to social superiors to social equals (lower class) to social equals (upper class) in private in public to express familiarity or intimacy to express formality or neutrality to show scorn or contempt to show respect or admiration Thou A speaker could use the familiar thou to address their social inferiors or to indicate friendship and intimacy. When some one of high rank addressed someone of lower rank (King to subject, parent to child, husband to wife, teacher to student), they would use thou. The subjects, children, wives, and students — on the other hand — would address their betters as you. The hierarchical use of thou made it an excellent way to put someone in their place, condescending to or insulting them. Calling someone thou, implied — all by itself — that they were inferior. But thou could express intimacy as well as superiority. Close friends, romantic partners, husbands and wives (in private) would all use thou to address each other. Speakers also addressed God as thou, signaling a deep spiritual intimacy between the believer and the deity.
[Show full text]
Preferred Gender Pronouns: for Faculty (Or, How to Take Important Steps in Becoming a Trans Ally!)
Preferred Gender Pronouns: For Faculty (Or, How to Take Important Steps in Becoming a Trans Ally!) What is a pronoun? ñ A pronoun is a word that refers to either the people talking (like I or you) or someone or something that is being talked about (like she, it, them, and this). Gender pronouns (like he and hers) specifically refer to people that you are talking about. What is a “preferred gender pronoun”? ñ A "preferred gender pronoun" (or PGP) is the pronoun that a person chooses to use for themself. For example: If Xena's preferred pronouns are she, her, and hers, you could say "Xena ate her food because she was hungry." What are some commonly used pronouns? ñ She, her, hers and he, him, his are the most commonly used pronouns. Some people call these "female/feminine" and "male/masculine" pronouns, but many avoid these labels because, for example, not everyone who uses he feels like a "male" or "masculine." ñ There are also lots of gender-neutral pronouns in use. Here are a few you might hear: ‹ They, them, theirs (Xena ate their food because they were hungry.) This is is a pretty common gender-neutral pronoun.... And yes, it can in fact be used in the singular. ‹ Ze, hir (Xena ate hir food because ze was hungry.) Ze is pronounced like "zee" can also be spelled zie or xe, and replaces she/he/they. Hir is pronounced like "here" and replaces her/hers/him/his/they/theirs. ñ Just my name please! (Xena ate Xena's food because Xena was hungry) Some people prefer not to use pronouns at all, using their name as a pronoun instead.
[Show full text]
AN INTRODUCTORY GRAMMAR of OLD ENGLISH Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies
AN INTRODUCTORY GRAMMAR OF OLD ENGLISH MEDievaL AND Renaissance Texts anD STUDies VOLUME 463 MRTS TEXTS FOR TEACHING VOLUme 8 An Introductory Grammar of Old English with an Anthology of Readings by R. D. Fulk Tempe, Arizona 2014 © Copyright 2020 R. D. Fulk This book was originally published in 2014 by the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Arizona State University, Tempe Arizona. When the book went out of print, the press kindly allowed the copyright to revert to the author, so that this corrected reprint could be made freely available as an Open Access book. TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE viii ABBREVIATIONS ix WORKS CITED xi I. GRAMMAR INTRODUCTION (§§1–8) 3 CHAP. I (§§9–24) Phonology and Orthography 8 CHAP. II (§§25–31) Grammatical Gender • Case Functions • Masculine a-Stems • Anglo-Frisian Brightening and Restoration of a 16 CHAP. III (§§32–8) Neuter a-Stems • Uses of Demonstratives • Dual-Case Prepositions • Strong and Weak Verbs • First and Second Person Pronouns 21 CHAP. IV (§§39–45) ō-Stems • Third Person and Reﬂexive Pronouns • Verbal Rection • Subjunctive Mood 26 CHAP. V (§§46–53) Weak Nouns • Tense and Aspect • Forms of bēon 31 CHAP. VI (§§54–8) Strong and Weak Adjectives • Inﬁnitives 35 CHAP. VII (§§59–66) Numerals • Demonstrative þēs • Breaking • Final Fricatives • Degemination • Impersonal Verbs 40 CHAP. VIII (§§67–72) West Germanic Consonant Gemination and Loss of j • wa-, wō-, ja-, and jō-Stem Nouns • Dipthongization by Initial Palatal Consonants 44 CHAP. IX (§§73–8) Proto-Germanic e before i and j • Front Mutation • hwā • Verb-Second Syntax 48 CHAP.
[Show full text]
Beginning Old English / Carole Hough and John Corbett
© Carole Hough and John Corbett 2007 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Beginning Old Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. English Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this Carole Hough and John Corbett work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2007 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–9349–6 hardback ISBN-10: 1–4039–9349–1 hardback ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–9350–2 paperback ISBN-10: 1–4039–9350–5 paperback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
[Show full text]
Chapter 5. Middle English the Norman Conquest
Chapter 5. Middle English The Norman Conquest introduced a third language, French, to an already bilingual situation in England, consisting of Old English and Latin. Writing about 230 years later, Robert of Gloucester discusses the impact the Norman Conquest had on the English language. Robert of Gloucester’s Chronicle (Southern dialect, c. 1300) þus lo þe englisse folc. vor noȝt to grounde com. thus lo the English folk. for nought to ground came (were beaten) vor a fals king þat nadde no riȝt. to þe kinedom. for a false king that not-had no right. to the kingdom. & come to a nywe louerd. þat more in riȝt was. & came to a new lord. that more in right was. ac hor noþer as me may ise. in pur riȝte was. but their neither (neither of them) as one may see. in pure right was. & thus was in normannes hond. þat lond ibroȝt itwis... & thus was in norman’s hand that land brought indeed. þus com lo engelond. in to normandies hond. thus came lo England into Normandy’s hand. & þe normans ne couþe speke þo. bote hor owe speche. & the Normans not could speak then. but their own speech. & speke french as hii dude at om. & hor children dude & spoke French as they did at home. & their children did also teche. also teach. so þat heiemen of þis lond. þat of hor blod come. so that nobles of this land. that come of their blood. holdeþ alle þulk speche. þat hii of hom nome. hold all the same speech. that they from them took.
[Show full text]
“Battle of the Pronouns” 72 Texas Linguistics Forum 55:72-79 Pr
72 What’s up with y’all?: Sociopragmatic versatility in the “battle of the pronouns” Shawn Warner-Garcia University of California, Santa Barbara 1. Introduction There has been much debate – mostly of a historical or grammatical nature - over the development and use of the second-person plural (2PPL) pronominal form y’all in American English. Accurate historical documentation of the form is scant, resulting in a wide range of theories regarding its origin, with some authors proposing that y’all is a calque of a creole or African pronoun system (Lipski, 1993) and others arguing that it is an importation from the Scots-Irish dialect (Montgomery 1992). Grammatically, it is generally accepted that y’all is an analogous suppletion of the Early Modern English pronoun system (Maynor, 2000; Tillery, Wilke, and Bailey, 2000), though it is certainly not the only form that fills the 2PPL pronoun slot in modern-day American English. While you is the accepted singular second-person form, it also and often functions as an implicit plural. Other pronouns in American English comparable to y’all include yinz (Johnstone, 2001), you-uns (Montgomery, 2002; Donahue 2007), and you guys (Maynor, 2000). These forms, along with y’all, have been shown to index certain aspects of identity such as social class, region, or ethnicity. However, the discourse-pragmatic functions of these forms have not been investigated. In this paper, I show how y’all in particular serves distinct sociopragmatic purposes by indexing affective stances among young Texas speakers. I analyze a corpus of interactional video data in order to determine the state of y’all in what has been called the “battle of the pronouns” (Maynor, 2000).
[Show full text]
A First Book of Old English : Grammar, Reader, Notes, and Vocabulary
•' ""^••'"•^' ' LIBRARY Purchased bv Simdry Ftuad Vr/c 214635 3 A FIRST BOOK IN OLD ENGLISH GRAMMAR, READER, NOTES, AND FOCABULART BY ALBERT S. COOK PROFESSOR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE IN YALE UNIVERSITY THIRD EDITION GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON • NEW YORK • CHICAGO • LONDON ATLANTA • DALLAS • COLUMBUS • SAN FRANCISCO L 3 COPYRIGHT, 1894, 1903, 1921, BY ALBERT S. COOK ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 227.1 gfic gtbengam jgregg GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- PRIETORS • BOSTON U.S.A. TO JAMES MORGAN HART Author of "German Universities" and Scholar in Old English y PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. The present volume is an attempt to be of service to those who are beginning the study of our language, or who desire to acquaint themselves with a few speci- mens of our earliest literature. It has seemed to the author that there were two extremes to be avoided in its compilation — the treatment of Old English as though it consisted of wholly isolated phenomena, and the procedure upon a virtual assumption that the student was already acquainted with the cognate Germanic tongues and with the problems and methods of comparative phi- lology. The former treatment robs the study of its significance and value, which, like that of most other subjects, is found in its relations ; the latter repels and confounds the student at a stage when he is most in need of encouragement and attraction. How well the author has succeeded must be left to the judgment of others — the masters whom he follows at a distance, and the students whose interests he has constantly borne in mind.
[Show full text]
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
Ms. Kizlyk – AP Language Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number, gender, and person. An antecedent is the noun or pronoun that a pronoun refers to or replaces. Agreement in Number If the antecedent is singular, use a singular pronoun. If it is plural, use a plural pronoun. Because this dollhouse is almost 300 years old, it is historically important. The furnishings are noticeably different from their modern counterparts. Compound Subjects – A plural pronoun is used to refer to nouns or pronouns joined by and. The tiny chest and dresser still have their original hardware. A pronoun that refers to nouns or pronouns joined by or or nor should agree with the noun or pronoun nearest to it. Neither the astronauts nor NASA neglected its duties. Neither NASA nor the astronauts neglected their duties. With Collective Nouns – A collective noun such as class, crew, team, audience, or family may be referred to by either a singular or a plural pronoun, depending upon the meaning of the noun in the sentence. - A pronoun that refers to a collective noun should be singular if the collective noun names a group acting as a unit. The family that owns the house loaned its treasure to the library. (singular - The family is acting as a single unit) - A pronoun that refers to a collective noun should be plural if the collective noun names the members or parts of a group acting individually. The family wanted their friends to see the house. (plural - The family members are acting individually) Ms.
[Show full text]