Writing Tip: Pronouns Can Establish a Personal Tone
"Tone" in a document is the impression we leave with our readers about our professionalism, our attitudes toward the subject, and even our attitudes toward the reader. Your choice of personal pronouns is probably the single most important factor in giving your document a friendly, personal, human tone.
Address the reader by name or as "you:"
Use "you" or "your" as often as possible to convey a conversational tone in your documents. This conversational tone can make your documents sound more like the tone you would probably take if you actually talked with the reader. This technique will make your documents sound more natural, open, and much less bureaucratic.
Refer to yourself or the person signing the letter as "I" instead of "We":
The American Heritage Dictionary defines "we" as a pronoun "used by the speaker or writer to indicate the speaker or writer along with another or others as the subject." It also defines the term as a pronoun "used instead of I by a sovereign in formal address to refer to himself or herself." When we use "we" to refer to ourselves when speaking as one individual, we give people an opportunity to ridicule us as the following story shows:
A lawyer wrote to his congressional representative after receiving a letter from a government employee. He was irate that the letter did not answer his question. As if the non-responsive tone of the letter wasn't enough, the employee had used "we" throughout the letter, even when the action could only be attributed to the writer. The lawyer remarked that he had trouble deciding whether the employee was "a member of royalty or whether he had a mouse in his pocket."
Using "I" instead of "we" when the document is clear that only one person carried out the action makes you seem more real to your reader. You will communicate accountability, a professional friendliness, and a personal interest in the document you are signing. Use "we" when you are referring to actions you and at least one other person carried out and "I" when referring to yourself as the subject of the action.