The politician is the ultimate salesperson. Speeches are the platform for gaining power and are drafted with this purpose in mind. Special attention is given to the simple pronoun; that obscure part of speech so often taken for granted by the average person.<\/p>\n
Barack Obama\u2019s famous slogan for the 2008 Presidential Campaign, \u201cYes We Can\u201d shows the power of the pronoun. The power of this simple slogan is that unlike previous candidates, Obama was not saying what he would do for his voters but rather that they would work together. It worked. He won the 2008 election and was voted back into power in 2012.<\/p>\n
The pronoun we<\/em> is used to invoke a sense of collectivism and to share responsibility whereas they<\/em> is used to separate self<\/em> from other<\/em>; often in a discriminatory sense. \u2018They<\/em> are troublemakers\u2019 creates a definite barrier between the speaker and the \u2018other\u2019 very different group.<\/p>\n The use of pronouns provides insight into the words of writer or speaker. Is the person actually \u2018one of us\u2019 or \u2018one of them\u2019. Does the person overuse the narcissistic I<\/em> or the collective and fuzzy-feeling we<\/em>?<\/p>\n According to wordnetweb.princeton.edu, viewpoint is defined as \u201ca mental position from which things are viewed”. This definition is a wonderful way of expressing the power of the pronoun. The use of a personal pronoun either in first , second or third person can reveal whether the person\u00a0is arrogant, expressive or detached.<\/p>\n The first person I<\/em> , is used to express a personal opinion. The plural we<\/em> has become a popular pronoun in business. It has been used to include leaders in the mix of the common people.<\/p>\n However, the collective we<\/em> can be negative as well and is often exploited to share responsibility. Consider the CEO of a company telling employees that “we<\/em><\/strong> should tighten our<\/em><\/strong> belts and save\u201d. The CEO then drives off in the latest BMW X5 whilst the employees stand in endless queues waiting for the public transport to arrive. Who exactly will be \u2018tightening their belts\u2019?<\/p>\n The use of the third person (he, she, they<\/em>) is recommended in business writing. It creates distance between the writer and the reader. Once again, depending on the context, the third person viewpoint can have negative outcome. Consider Marie Antionette\u2019s famous comment, \u201cLet them eat cake\u201d when she was told that her people did not even have bread to eat. This comment distanced her from her people and revealed her ignorance about the suffering of the people around her.<\/p>\n The second (and enigmatic viewpoint) person you<\/em> remains unchanged whether used singularly or to address a group. The you<\/em> is used as a direct form of address and attempts to involve the reader and make them active in the writing. It is often used effectively in pulp fiction such as The Fight Club<\/em>. The reader is part of an uncomfortable situation. In an argument, the you<\/em> is often used negatively. \u201cYou are lazy\u201d is accusatory. Editors of female magazines use you\u00a0<\/em>to show solidarity and understanding. \u201cBe the best you\u201d is a wonderful slogan. Consider the most popular three-word sentence, \u201cI love you\u201d.<\/p>\n Having pronoun problems?FIRST PERSON VIEWPOINT<\/h3>\n
THIRD PERSON VIEWPOINT<\/h3>\n
THE SECOND PERSON VIEWPOINT<\/h3>\n
Remember<\/h3>\n
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\nThis article was first published Writers Write blog 9th September 2013. This is an edited version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[190,187,36,189,192,191,188],"class_list":["post-1007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01business-writers","tag-business-writing","tag-obama","tag-politics","tag-pronouns","tag-speeches","tag-viewpoint","tag-yes-we-can"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ulrikehill.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ulrikehill.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ulrikehill.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ulrikehill.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ulrikehill.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1007"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ulrikehill.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1010,"href":"https:\/\/www.ulrikehill.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007\/revisions\/1010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ulrikehill.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ulrikehill.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ulrikehill.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}