People who write about themselves in 3rd person or plural form

[Erki]

Isn't it just irritating? And extremely confusing, too.

A good example:


http://www.nenodesign.com/port.html
To view some of my work click on the links to your right. These are only certain pieces from my portfolio. So to view my entire portfolio, you will need to schedule a meeting with me. But I hope that this shows you what Neno Design has been up to and what we are capable of.

My, my, my, me, and then finally we. :\

[Mark]

Mark agrees

[veeten]

so does veeten...

:p :

[Drew]

One = 3rd personal singular
We = 1st person plural

Just to clear things up :p :

[Erki]

One = 3rd personal singular
We = 1st person plural

Just to clear things up :p :

I know. :) I forgot to add an example of the 3rd person thingy.

I mean when someone writes on their website or blog on the about page lines like "Erki is a seasoned motorsport follower with high expertise in almost every discipline, especially in rallying and endurance sportscars. yada yada.".

It's ok when NYTimes writes such blurb at the end of an article about me, but writing such thing on my own website, by myself, feels weird to me, at least.

[Drew]

People also tend to use "we" for their companies, even if there is just one person in the company. It confused Drew quite a bit.

[MrJan]

Jan thinks that using the 3rd person is cool if you want to sound like a bit of a ****. Jan also thinks that Exeter aren't rubbish Drew :p : Jamie Mackie however will definately look rubbish, certainly not £145,000 worth. Jan thinks this is cool :D

[BDunnell]

This is a really interesting topic. I too find the practice of referring to companies in a plural form rather strange — eg 'Boeing have been having major problems recently. Their latest aircraft has been delayed severely by supply chain difficulties'. It's one of those things that can be hard to spot, but when you do, makes you wonder why so many people (including most of us, probably, at least in speech) do it.

As for the ways of referring to oneself, the comedian Mark Steel once wrote about meeting Arthur Scargill, who spoke thus: 'People ask me what Arthur Scargill did for the miners. I'll tell you what Arthur Scargill did for the miners. Arthur Scargill...'

[Hazell B]

Hang on a minute - have you tried reading a company advert when the company calls itself 'I' ? It makes that company look tiny and frankly no force in the market place at all :mark:

I make troughs, which sell at markets, village festivals and so on. Their little advertising sign reads "... designed, made and planted by us ... " because "... by me ..." just didn't sell very well. In fact half the time prospective male buyers just thought I was an out and out liar as what small woman can make heavy stone troughs by herself? I found myself having to prove it by picking them up and showing men how they were made :mark:

Anyway, much as it's rotten English, it's the only way to make it work.

[BDunnell]

Hang on a minute - have you tried reading a company advert when the company calls itself 'I' ? It makes that company look tiny and frankly no force in the market place at all :mark:

Oh, that's not good either! I was referring much more to the way people talk about companies, though, rather than the way companies talk about themselves.

[Magnus]

He was sometimes writing abt himself in third person. It was easier to be funny that way, he thought, and he meant furthermore that he could write abt his actions, good or bad, with a little filter, thus keeping bragging and shameful actions at a distance. He especially used this method in his role as secretary for his local RT-club, and it was always highly appreciated.
He also meant that using the "third person technique" make it possible to add an extra touch to a text. That said, it shouldn´t be done all the time, but a little dose then and know is no harm, he finished and reached for the semi-colon.
;)

[BDunnell]

He was sometimes writing abt himself in third person. It was easier to be funny that way, he thought, and he meant furthermore that he could write abt his actions, good or bad, with a little filter, thus keeping bragging and shameful actions at a distance. He especially used this method in his role as secretary for his local RT-club, and it was always highly appreciated.
He also meant that using the "third person technique" make it possible to add an extra touch to a text. That said, it shouldn´t be done all the time, but a little dose then and know is no harm, he finished and reached for the semi-colon.
;)

:laugh: Excellent!

I always used to enjoy the circular Christmas letter from old acquaintances (at most) of my parents, in which the wife used to refer to herself in the third person throughout, thereby just distancing her slightly from her wonderful achievements in the year gone by.

[Rollo]

Isn't it just irritating? And extremely confusing, too.
A good example:
My, my, my, me, and then finally we. :\

"We" here isn't referring to themselves in the third person. "We" is a colective.



But I hope that this shows you what Neno Design has been up to and what we are capable of.

Neno Design is NOT the indivudual but a company. A company by very definition is a separate entity from the individual at law. By using the word "we" this person has represented the company accurately. On the face of it, it looks like Neno Design could be a largish collective; in which case "we" is quite appropriate.

[Erki]

"We" here isn't referring to themselves in the third person. "We" is a colective.

I know I blew it already. I'll see if I can post an example of what I mean. This particular example was about writing about yourself as if you were multiple people.




Neno Design is NOT the indivudual but a company. A company by very definition is a separate entity from the individual at law. By using the word "we" this person has represented the company accurately. On the face of it, it looks like Neno Design could be a largish collective; in which case "we" is quite appropriate.

What if you are a one wo/man band? Self employed? How can Neno Design b a largish collective when it's written that "I have made this and that websites, come and see more of what I have done"?

[Erki]

Hang on a minute - have you tried reading a company advert when the company calls itself 'I' ? It makes that company look tiny and frankly no force in the market place at all :mark:

I like small tiny cute companies you see. ;) :D

[Erki]

OK. See this one for example: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/about.html

It's written wholly in 3rd person. Perhaps it's done because this way it sounds more "formal" or more business-y or whatever.

I read that he(Seth Godin) doesn't have staff either:

"Anyway, I don't have a staff. It's just me. (Though having a staff seems to work really well for Tim.)" http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/02/not-seth-godin.html

Again some touch to add size and strength to your company? :\

[BDunnell]

Neno Design is NOT the indivudual but a company. A company by very definition is a separate entity from the individual at law. By using the word "we" this person has represented the company accurately. On the face of it, it looks like Neno Design could be a largish collective; in which case "we" is quite appropriate.

But the company itself is a single, individual entity. This is my objection to phrases like 'Ford have been...'

That said, when talking about, for example, what your company has been doing, using 'we' to refer to the whole firm is probably the only way of doing so without using the company's name over and over again.

[Azumanga Davo]

LOL, like listening to Ringo Starr then.

"I love being part of the Beatles. Said Thomas." :D

OK, that quote isn't from Rock Profile, but I always liked that episode...

[Rollo]

That said, when talking about, for example, what your company has been doing, using 'we' to refer to the whole firm is probably the only way of doing so without using the company's name over and over again.

"We" is a 1st person tag; not a third person tag. The first person is when you refer to yourself. Please refer to my esteemed colleague Hazell who is 100% correct on this point.


Hang on a minute - have you tried reading a company advert when the company calls itself 'I' ? It makes that company look tiny and frankly no force in the market place at all :mark:

[BDunnell]

"We" is a 1st person tag; not a third person tag. The first person is when you refer to yourself. Please refer to my esteemed colleague Hazell who is 100% correct on this point.

I was making a point slightly unrelated to the original thread title, to be honest.

Personally, I have never seen a company of any size referring to itself as 'I'.

[gadjo_dilo]

Since English is not my mother language it's not irritating at all and I admit I haven't noticed it until now.
What I find really annoying is the habit of some of my female conationals to use the last name when referring to their husbands. Like " Brown did this or that ".

[leopard]

Even in our own language's grammar, substituting the words of first singular person like I/my/mine, into plural form like We/our/ours, is grammatically wrong.

We often use the plural form because we consider it has more politeness than the singular. This is quite understandable reason because those tend to speak with more 'I/my/mine' reflect that they want to show their ego off, while the use of plural form reflect togetherness, although in many cases there is no other persons from the group/company to represent but her/himself.

We know this is wrong, but we do it by intention for being polite persons, (luckily ;) ).

[gadjo_dilo]

We know this is wrong, but we do it by intention for being polite persons, (luckily ;) ).

Good point. Make me think of something weird. In romanian the polite form of adressing to an unknown/official person means to use the verb on its plural form. We, educated people, use it all the time and it entered our conscience so deep that we even don't realize it's gramatically wrong. Ironically, we are apalled when somebody use the singular ( gramatically correct ) form because it's rude. :laugh:

[Magnus]

Good point. Make me think of something weird. In romanian the polite form of adressing to an unknown/official person means to use the verb on its plural form. We, educated people, use it all the time and it entered our conscience so deep that we even don't realize it's gramatically wrong. Ironically, we are apalled when somebody use the singular ( gramatically correct ) form because it's rude. :laugh:

You have now explained to me why the swedish kings througout history have refered to themselves. I have found it very strange:
We, Karl XVI Gustav, King of bla bla bla, have decided upon bla bla bla
But: that is not third person...

[Erki]

Does anyone read the thread title after the 8th word too? That shouldn't be in 3rd person. :rolleyes:

[gadjo_dilo]

Magnus, when I said "we" I was talking about educated people and when it comes to speaking correctly my mother language I'm one of them. So the grammar construction was correct.

[Magnus]

Magnus, when I said "we" I was talking about educated people and when it comes to speaking correctly my mother language I'm one of them. So the grammar construction was correct.

I do not understand...? It seems like you thought I was critisicing you in some way, which I was not. It may be that I have misunderstood something anyway, in that case i apologize.
In fact I was merely trying to thank you for the enlightning info...
And regarding that it was not in third person, but in "we" form. sorry me again, I didn´t read the last part as erki hinted at.
I am a bad person :(
/Magnus

[gadjo_dilo]

.
In fact I was merely trying to thank you for the enlightning info...


Really?!!???
It was hard to believe when my example was related to the verb not to the person and it concerned a form used for the verb at 2nd person. More than that it was related to politenss and with all my respect for his majesty Carl Gustav I don't think it's the case with the way he communicates his decisions

[Magnus]

Ok, nevermind. I take it from the beginning: it is custom to call yourself "we" if you are a king. At least in Sweden.
And since my gratitude seems both misunderstood, and even questioned, I guess we just drop that also :)
Regarding the rspect for our king, that is maybe nice. In Sweden though we tend to respect him as much as we respect our neighbour. He is a human, and therefore deserves respect. Apart from that he is a nice bloke with a fancy title.

We are not amused.

[BDunnell]

We often use the plural form because we consider it has more politeness than the singular. This is quite understandable reason because those tend to speak with more 'I/my/mine' reflect that they want to show their ego off, while the use of plural form reflect togetherness, although in many cases there is no other persons from the group/company to represent but her/himself.

Very good point.

There may be another reason in play here as well, which has just occurred to me. In days gone by (certainly, much more so then than today), people would often refer to companies in a plural form. An example in my line of work is the aircraft manufacturer Hawker — people would typically say, 'I work for Hawkers', and indeed many 'veterans' of the company still do. In fact, thinking about it, we refer to 'going to Marks and Spencers' when the company name is Marks and Spencer, and so on. With the latter point, it is debatable as to whether an apostrophe should be involved, to indicate some form of possession, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I wonder whether this may have some bearing on the matter, though the notion could be entirely wrong.

[leopard]

If the hawker refers to the general product it maybe acceptable to say work for hawkers, but if it refers to the company name it would mean there are more than a hawker company. My classmate who is now in Digantara Aerospace just call the company Dirgantara and not Dirgantaras :) .

The plural form that sounds politer is to describe situation we talk to others on behalf of a company or institution. Let's compare 'I've been working for Hawker for five years, I produce spacecrafts' and 'I've been working for Hawker for five years, We produce spacecrafts'

[leopard]

Good point. Make me think of something weird. In romanian the polite form of adressing to an unknown/official person means to use the verb on its plural form. We, educated people, use it all the time and it entered our conscience so deep that we even don't realize it's gramatically wrong. Ironically, we are apalled when somebody use the singular ( gramatically correct ) form because it's rude. :laugh:
We are educated and polite people ;) :)

[Azumanga Davo]

We are not amused.

Lucky little Queen Vic didn't spot those who were p%$$%^& themselves laughing then... ;)

[Erki]

The plural form that sounds politer is to describe situation we talk to others on behalf of a company or institution. Let's compare 'I've been working for Hawker for five years, I produce spacecrafts' and 'I've been working for Hawker for five years, We produce spacecrafts'

Yes, but in this case the Hawker is a large company. One guy or gal would have a mega hard time building a spacecraft on their* own. Thus I think it's acceptable to use the "we", referring to the collective building those spacecrafts.

If, however, that person builds websites(look at my example in first post), and does it on their* own, then that person doesn't work in a company, that person is that company. (Sure you can go on about juridically company being separate and bla bla - we in Estonia know juridical stuff well enough ;) ). And note that on that same page, on bottom, there's that table with heading "My skills". Huh??

*"they/their/them/etc" is a very acceptable gender neutral 3rd person pronoun. ;)

[Erki]

Plural for plural, but what really irritates me(I know it shouldn't, but I ain't no perfect either ;) ) is people writing about themselves in 3rd person.

from:http://sethgodin.typepad.com/about.html
EXAMPLE:

SETH GODIN is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change.



His latest book, Purple Cow, was a [bla bla]...

Seth is a renowned speaker as well. He was [bla bla]
Seth was [more bla bla]

He holds an MBA from Stanford, and was called "the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age" by Business Week.

[and the ending chord :D :]

CLICK HERE to return to [b]my blog.

Maybe I should send an email to Seth Godin. :\