RE: You VS One

["McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

I'm fifty-mumble years old and write English for a living, and until
today I had always used "one" to mean, indeterminately,
any-and-possibly-all of "I", "you", "we" or "they".  Not that I used
"one" all that much, but when I did, that was my intent. 

One should resist the urge to imagine that one has mastered one's
language.

Apparently, that's an incorrect sentence if one intended to refer to
"persons in general"... that is, if I had so intended, or if you were to
so intend, or if that other lot over there were to harbo[u]r such
intent.

Drat. One is miffed.

Kevin

--
"His huff arrived, and he departed in it."  - O. Wilde

> -----Original Message-----
> From:
techwr-l-bounces+kevin -dot- mclauchlan=safenet-inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+kevin -dot- mclauchlan=safenet-inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-
> l.com] On Behalf Of Bill Swallow
> Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 11:26
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: Re: You VS One
> 
> You know, one should never use one when you mean you, else you may
> confuse one reading one instead of you. One is best to use you and not
> one when meaning you, and use one only when meaning one and not you.
> 
> On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 2:50 AM, Geoff Lane <geoff -at- gjctech -dot- co -dot- uk>
wrote:
> > On Thursday, June 5, 2008, Keith Hansen wrote;
> > Only in America does one use "one" instead of "you". "One" is a
> > generic person that includes first and third persons, i.e.
substituted
> > for "we and they", or "they and I". So, if you're addressing the
> > reader, "you" has always been correct.
> >
> > Occurrences of the first person in technical writing are limited,
> > which limits the times when we can legitimately use "one" in
technical
> > documentation. Even when "one" is correct it's often clearer to use
> > the name of the group, e.g. "voters", and so it's rare to see "one"
in
> > technical writing.
> 
> --
> Bill Swallow
> HATT List Owner
> WWP-Users List Owner
> Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
> STC Single-Sourcing SIG Manager
> http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
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