Business Writing

Lesson 1: Why is Writing Important in Business?

Personal Pronouns

The most active part of the case system remaining in modern English is in the use of personal pronouns. These are the short words which we use to stand in for the full names of people and things, eg: 'I', 'him', 'she' and 'it'. Most of us use these words so often that we get them right without trying, but occasionally people fall into bad habits.

When listing a group of people who are doing something together, it is polite to put yourself last, eg: "David, Peter and I are going to the meeting." People often choose the wrong personal pronoun in this situation, eg: "David, Peter and me are going to the meeting." Because going (to the meeting) is an active behavior, all of the people going are subjects in the sentence and should therefore take the nominative case. 'Me' is an accusative and dative form. In the opposite situation, you should not say "David gave these documents to Peter and I." but, rather, "David gave these documents to Peter and me." because, in that case, 'Peter and me' are the (indirect) objects in the sentence.

In these situations, think about whether you are doing something or having something done to you. It can be less confusing if you imagine what the sentence would be like without the other person: eg: "David gave these documents to I." sounds obviously wrong.

Besides 'me', 'he', 'she', 'it', 'us' and 'them', there is another personal pronoun in English which often causes confusion: 'one'. This can be a very useful pronoun, but if you're not sure how to use it correctly, you can get by without it. As with 'whom', some people use it to try and impress, but get it wrong, which makes a much worse impression than if they hadn't tried.

Many people are familiar with 'one' as it is used by the British Royal Family, where it stands in for 'I'. This is, strictly speaking, correct usage, but it is archaic and does not represent the way that 'one' is used by most other people. More often 'one' is used to represent an unspecified person who might be like any other person. Using 'one' can provide an alternative to using passive voice constructions (which, in business letters, your grammar checker will probably complain about). An example would be "One can turn off one's grammar checker." Many people would use the popular alternative "You can turn off your grammar checker." However, use of 'you' in this context, though it may sound less stilted, has slightly different connotations. It can be useful to be able to distinguish between a specific 'you' and a more general 'you' (as representative of anyone).

If you choose to use 'one' in a document, be consistent and keep using it wherever appropriate. Don't change to 'you' halfway through. Many people produce ugly, grammatically flawed writing by changing pronouns mid-sentence, but there's really no reason why you should have to let that happen.

Use of 'he', 'she' and 'they' will be covered later, in the section on gender-neutral language.

Royal watchers may note that the British Queen uses the word 'we' where other people would use 'I'. This is an obscure reference to the Queen as a representative of her country (thus it implies the shared will of her subjects). It is traditionally used only by royalty, though Margaret Thatcher once famously used it in her declaration "We are a grandmother." The press considered Mrs. Thatcher's usage to be indicative of megalomania. Unless you are royalty, using 'we' in this way is best avoided.