

Ask HN: I versus We - maguay

When writing a post, newsletter, or really anything for your site, startup, or freelance job where you're the only author/worker/employee, is it best to use I or We?  I struggle with whether to use <i>I</i> or <i>we</i> in blog posts when I'm the only writer on the site.  On other sites I write for, I use we always, but on my own where there's no other person for the <i>we</i>, it seems odd.<p>Thoughts, Opinions?  What do you usually do?
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highlander
If it seems odd, don't do it. If you're the only person, I think it's fine
just to use 'I'.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majestic_plural> ;)

'In a frequently-repeated story, United States Navy Admiral Hyman G. Rickover
told a subordinate who used the royal we: "Three groups are permitted that
usage: pregnant women, royalty, and schizophrenics. Which one are you?"'

~~~
maguay
Thanks ... that looks like the link I needed :)

And the quote that (possibly) comes from Mark Twain is great, too: "Only
kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use
the editorial 'we.'"

Perhaps it's the _editors_ part where bloggers get the idea to use _we_ on
everything...

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RiderOfGiraffes
In addition to the comments already made about sounding personal, pregnant
women, royalty, and the schizophrenic, sometimes I use "we" to mean "us both -
you, the reader, and me, the author." With that in mind, some places where
"we" would otherwise sound wrong suddenly become normal/sensible/reasonable.

~~~
maguay
Ah, very good point. _We've_ all experienced situations where this would be
true ;)

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freerobby
Use "I" when you want to convey something personal; use "we" when you want to
convey unity, mutual empathy or some other connection with your team and
audience. If it's a close call, a good rule of thumb is to think hard and be
honest -- are you referring to yourself or to your team?

Examples:

1) I'd say "I deeply apologize" rather than "we deeply apologize" when I want
to be clear about owning responsibility for a corporate failure without hiding
behind our corporate outfit.

2) I'd say "We're excited to launch..." to convey a team's hard work,
dedication and excitement.

3) I'd say "We all hate having to do foo. That's why we created bar!" to show
mutual empathy with our audience and convey that we are trying to solve a
problem that "we" all have.

These tips mostly come from a public speaking class that I took, but they've
served me very well for writing copy.

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jonschwartz
Another school of thought on this is if you're trying to look bigger than you
are, which alot of startups do, "we" might be more appropriate.

~~~
maguay
Right, and that's exactly why I've had some tell me to use _we_ in articles
and other copywriting. But it just doesn't really feel appropriate always ...
if you're just one guy writing a blog, seems like you should make it sound
that way. I do see the value in projecting the bigger image, but sometimes it
seems like down-to-earthness can go a long ways too...

~~~
Semiapies
"Bigger images" go both ways - you can find yourself held to standards and
prey to expectations that you don't want.

I've seen this a lot in hobby industries - guys working out of a tiny rented
space in a office park find themselves wondering why their customers think
they're a big company with a lot of money. This is inevitably due to their
trying to look "professional", which tends to be a mingling of actual
professionalism and aping the promotional styles of larger companies.

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zalew
If you use 'we', better have a good answer when someone asks who else works
with you or you'll seem douchy. I don't see anything wrong in using 'we' if
you have coworkers, even if they're remote or work occasionally on demand. If
you're completely on your own, use 'I'.

However, I've heard anectodes about one-man/woman businesses where a person
fakes there's more people in the office. Seems dumb but sometimes it's needed
and they had success with it, I don't think it suits your case though :)

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gintas
I try to use "I" whenever possible. It makes the message more personal and
invites comments and replies. "We" is best when talking about collective
decisions.

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alexophile
It depends a lot on the perception you're trying to create. I can't find it
now, but there was an article a while back that spoke to the benefits of
having a dedicated identity for your billing department. In short, it helps to
separate the you that negotiates contracts and produces from the you that asks
for the money. Of course, if you were doing something like this, you would
want to make sure you used the plural.

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xiongchiamiov
I was reading a post from SmartBear the other day that touches upon this:
[http://blog.asmartbear.com/how-to-get-customers-who-love-
you...](http://blog.asmartbear.com/how-to-get-customers-who-love-you-even-
when-you-screw-up.html)

------
Xurinos
I use "we" when I refer to my target audience and me or when I am speaking for
my group. "We" is always plural. I sense a dishonesty when it is used to
create groups of people that do not exist, to imply numbers when there is only
one.

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eftpotrm
This may well be a habit inherited from my start in a very small organisation
where I was in charge of anything electronic, regardless of how much it looked
like a computer, but....

I find when I'm describing a project I've done to anyone outside the
organisation (and quite often inside, too), I almost always use We
automatically. I may have done it but I did it on behalf (and frequently under
the direction) of the organisation - it is an achievement and an asset for the
organisation and should be credited as such.

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efsavage
I think it depends on the attribution. If I see I, but no personal name, it
seems weird. If there's a name, and we is used, it should be clear who the
other people are.

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rlpb
It's all about emphasis.

Every sentence in my copy has a reason to be there, and the I/We thing isn't
it. As it's important to not detract from the real message, I try and use what
I think the reader might expect. This stops the reader from putting too much
importance into my word selection on a point that I didn't intend to
emphasize.

So I use both, depending on the context (although I'm sloppy unless I'm
writing copy).

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T_S_
One often thinks of the word "I" when one stumbles upon Martha Stewart on
television. The rate at which she uses the word is remarkable. One can't help
but believe its uses is intentional or at least consistent with her marketing
strategy. Has anyone else noticed this? Or, are we being overly sensitive as
we quickly change the channel, resolving to use the word less often than
Martha?

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landhar
This article makes an attempt at illustrating that more often thant not, using
the first-person-singular can also be an indicator of respect and boundary-
maintenance to others:

<http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2533>

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widgetycrank
Keep in mind that if you decide to hire people later on, you may have to go
through your site/app and change every instance of "I" to "we". :)

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zoomzoom
My writing teachers never let us use "I" in high school, because it is
considered poor form by most grammar purists.

~~~
alextgordon
What an odd thing for them to say. "I" is one of the most common words in the
English language. I very much doubt even _grammar purists_ would recommend
against it. What's next? "'The' is considered harmful"?

~~~
alexophile
I think the gp was in reference to writing academically, in which case it is
often inappropriate to use 'I' as you should be writing in more absolute
terms. I never did like that, though, as it makes your writing sound
structurally dismissive of alternative viewpoints.

~~~
andrewce
It also leads to passive voice, which is sometimes appropriate ("Then three
cubic centimeters of goat bile were added to the solution"; ideally, anyone
should be able to perform this experiment, and the experimenter is out of the
picture entirely), but in general, I agree with you.

The mental trick is to append "I think" to the beginning of every sentence and
hope that that works.

Also: using the "I" opens up the argumentum ad hominem, which can focus
criticism into uncomfortable territory ("Goat bile shouldn't have been added
until after the solution was brought to a boil!", versus "You shouldn't have
added goat bile until...." One of those is a bit more likely to be taken
personally (albeit by someone with thin skin, perhaps as a result of too much
exposure to goat bile)).

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edw519
Neither.

Find a way to restructure the sentence to use "you".

It's about your audience, not yourself.

~~~
protomyth
My brother when he was in college had a writing instructor that said if a
student used "you" in a paper then they better buy her flowers.

~~~
kls
Well that is because collage papers are supposed to be written in third person
to remove biasing the user by framing them in the situation. You are also not
supposed to use, I, we, or us. You should never refer to the reader, author or
researcher as an entity in of personal reference. In academic papers you are
providing information not framing a story to build character development. It
can seem kind of steril but it is done for a reason. That said, in the real
world, you generally want to bias the hell out of the reader. Patio11 made a
suggestion on a article once in which he suggested flipping all the we's of
the article to you. I went back and reworked some marketing material I had to
reflect that suggestion and was amazed at how compelling the once boring text
became. The reason was simple it framed the reader in the conversation.

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pbhjpbhj
>What do you usually do?

One struggles to decide.

