Comments on: Personal pronouns: It’s okay to own your web copy

By: Kevin Rapley

Kevin Rapley — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 02:28:12 +0000

I am really pleased that you have written this Angie. This is a great article. I use personal pronouns in my web copy which I am happy with. However, sometimes I catch myself starting too many sentences with 'We'. This feels somewhat awkward so with a second draft I try to restructure the sentences to avoid too much of this. Am I worrying over nothing? I still keep to personal pronouns when I restructure and I think the copy reads better after. Do you have any tips for avoiding this pitfall—if it is one?

By: Dey Alexander

Dey Alexander — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 04:44:41 +0000

I agree with all you've said, except the legal restriction. I'd be challenging that too, especially if the product is co-branded.

It may be necessary (and important for users) to say once that Company X and Company Y have created the product/are sponsoring the event/have funded the program or whatever it may be. From then on 'we' should be just fine.

By: Michael Kozakewich

Michael Kozakewich — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:13:13 +0000

I decided to challenge myself and use only second-person pronouns (because it's all about you?) in my main body copy. I think it worked reasonably well. I don't think I referred to the company once in the entire thing — not even to say 'we' or 'us'.

By: Melanie S.

Melanie S. — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:28:03 +0000

I had a difficult time convincing my co-workers of this, but our copy and documentation is so much better when we use personal pronouns. And the legal caveats, I'd never thought of. Thanks!

By: BlueFerret

BlueFerret — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 06:35:13 +0000

Thanks for writing this Angie. The "old fashioned" is what I run into the most with potential clients. Even smaller businesses tell me, "We need to sound formal!"

...Why? You're not legally required.

Some do it because they want to sound as professional as possible. Not realizing that on the Web, their "professional" comes across as "snooty" a lot of the time.

Something else they miss is that by doing this, they're talking AT their audience. Not ABOUT them. Which is what the audience wants to read.

When I remind them that the copy draws more people in if it's personal - and then mention the SEO hit if they're too formal - they sometimes change gears. It's (slowly) changing out there!

By: Gabriel Smy

Gabriel Smy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:34:20 +0000

They say that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness but talking about yourself in the third person must be getting close.

One of the biggest problems I find with web copy is inconsistency in the voice – people switching between third and first person or between singular and plural. I just wrote about this at SmyWord.

Thanks for flagging up the legal issues. I haven't come across the cobranded issue before but we do have clients whose copy is legally monitored (e.g. in finance) so there must be no ambiguity around who the 'we' is.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:04:48 +0000

Great advice, Angie. "We" is the way to go. Sometimes you just have to make it really clear who you mean, as we discovered when writing for Nokia’s environmental campaign. Its name? "we:"