Get personal in your copywriting

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Gary Chow | No Comments » | Trackback URL

Following on from my post on the importance of writing in the active voice, another associated principle of plain English is that you should address your audience directly. This means using personal pronouns.

Using ‘I’, ‘we’, ‘you’ and ‘he/she’ is more personal and ensures you write in the active voice. It’s also more in line with the way we talk to one another and helps to ensure your explanations and descriptions will be easier to understand. For example:

• ‘Please send in your completed application by…’
• ‘You can get advice from…’
• ‘We will reply to your email within two days’.

The above sentences are direct and more personal than:

• ‘The applicant should complete the form by…’
• ‘Tax payers can get advice from…’
• ‘The customer relations department will reply to your email within two days…’.

But what about formal reports and technical documents?

A school of thought states we should write in a ‘formal’ way when writing technical and formal reports and so avoid the direct, personal and conversational tone. I disagree. It’s this very approach that renders these types of documents boring and lifeless. For example, when you avoid using personal pronouns your documents end up with clunky passive sentences like these:

• ‘It is considered….’
• ‘It is understood…’.

In such sentences, it’s not explicit as to who is doing the action. Does ’it’ refer to the writer or to a specific or general body of opinion?

Worst still are constructions such as ‘The writer believes…’

Impersonal writing doesn’t make you sound more knowledgeable or scientific it just makes you sound pompous and dreary. Using the personal approach will give your writing a new lease of life.