Looking for advice of experienced writers
#8
Depends on what you're writing for.

For a formal report, you should avoid using personal pronouns in general. It sounds equally tacky to say either 'one' or 'you'. The sentence should be reworded to sound more like a report (i.e. describing a scenario rather than speaking to an audience).

For an English paper at lower levels of writing (high school and 1000 and 2000 level classes, especially at technical schools) you should avoid using 'you'. You should probably avoid using 'one' as well, but if the situation calls for it, then go for it.

At higher levels of writing, the rules break down. There are plenty of situations where the second person is useful, whether you're speaking directly to an audience, or trying to set a tone, or whatever. Rules about what you should do are really meaningless in the real world. Colloquial language is used far more often than formal writing.

Personally, I almost never use the word 'one' as a pronoun. It's just not something people say, and sounds unnatural in most contexts. I'm pretty sure that in your situation, you should stick with the first course of action I mentioned. That is, don't use personal pronouns.

If you could provide a little more context and an example, I can demonstrate how to fix it.
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Looking for advice of experienced writers - by Dusk - 2008-10-20, 06:45 PM

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