Chanpory Rith
Oct 27, 2008
I’m going through a bit of a blog crisis, so I’ve been looking more closely at the About page on this site. The word “we” is all over the place. Which is weird, because I’ve been going solo for awhile.
I do wish I had a team of magic elves maintaining and pumping out content on this site. But since it’s just me, I’d be lying if I keep using “we”.
So it’s time to put the “I” back into this old blog. I know I’ve been inconsistent in the past, so I’m now making it my official position.
I’ll be posting a new About page this week—proudly written in the first person. There’ll be a few other changes, too. ;-)
If you own a solo blog, tell me: do you use “I” or “we” when writing?
19 Comments
Stefan
9:46 pm
“We” sounds more professional, unless it is a personal blog, then only “I” would make sense.
Chanpory Rith
10:43 pm
“We” does sound more professional. But if it’s just one person, doesn’t that make it a personal blog? ;-)
Liz
10:58 pm
I’m a designer who runs a one-woman web studio, and a solo blog. I use “I”, not trying to fool no one. It’s just little ‘ol me. Doin it all. :)
J.
12:56 am
What a coincidence that you bring this up… I’m not in the web business, I have a homepage just for fun, and I spent several hours last weekend rewriting my “about” page in I, we and J. formats. Settled for I in the end :).
Deepa Govind
4:26 am
Strange , Never really thought about this per se but i have been using “I” all along.
I do take up occassional freelancing offers and i feel it to be right only to use “I”
Jacob Cass
7:19 am
I also became aware of this problem on my site… I was referring to ‘we’ as in the blog and myself however now everything is in first person thanks to a few friendly emails asking why I use ‘we’ in my articles and about page.
Leo Utskot
8:53 am
I, we, yo mama, it doesn’t matter as long as you get back to blogging. You’re last real post was in August.
So get back to writing the good posts I was used to reading here.
Sheri
5:32 pm
I think that the collective “we” were taught as young writers not to use the personal pronoun in our writing. We didn’t want to sound arrogant or self-centered. So we - all of us or many of us - ended up using third-person or passive construction to avoid “I” at all costs! This writer (another way to bypass the self-centered pronoun) has decided that the first-person pronoun is fitting in personal blogs or job applications that are, in reality, expressing the views or showcasing the skills of one individual: the writer.
Go for “I”t!!
Aaron
7:11 pm
I think “we” is a good term. A blog is a community experience.
yiyi wang
10:42 pm
depends, sometimes i use “I” for personal view. and “we” for things we did. (that’s for blog) for the website i use “we” all the time because every statement i make there supposed to be be agreed among team (and team can be changing all the time from solo to a group anyway)
pelf
3:33 am
If you own a solo blog, tell me: do you use “I” or “we” when writing?
I guess it depends on what I am writing about. If I am writing about the things that involve only myself, I use “I”.
But if I’m writing about the things that I do together with other people, e.g. friends or Advisor, I use “we”.
Benjamin Jancewicz
11:01 am
I use we. But then, I ran my business a little differently. We always were a we; I constantly hired out developers and freelancers to help me with overflow work. And now that the company’s expanded, we’re still using we.
Dara
1:58 pm
I use “we”, mainly because I think it helps the readers seem more a part of something. As if the blog was a little community of the writer and readers.
Corey Freeman
6:37 am
I personally try my best to use the word “I” but for some reason “we” comes out. I think people believe that going solo is somehow unacceptable. You don’t need a team of people to be successful. The about page of your blog is important, so you should focus on making it the way a reader would want to read it.
DanGTD
7:54 am
There’s nothing wrong with I. You shouldn’t pretend to be something you are not. In fact, in the case of a blog it’s better to be an I than a we.
Mallory
1:53 am
Thank goodness! I despite solo bloggers referring to themselves as ‘we’ —- Makes me think they’ve got some sort of multiple personality disorder they want to flaunt. :P
So glad that LifeClever’s back, I can’t wait to catch up with the few posts I’ve missed! :)
Mallory
1:54 am
Whoops, that should be ‘despise’, not ‘despite’.
Shame on me for trying to comment in an intelligent manner at 4:00 AM …
Martin Lindeskog
7:39 am
Go with ego (I in Latin). I have a blog called EGO and I have registered my personal site with my own domain name (www.Martin.Lindeskog.name).
vh
10:54 am
I. I, me, my, myself.
On the other hand, i do try not to start every sentence with a personal pronoun. And especially not with “I think,” “I expect,” “I wish,” “I predict,” or “IMHO.”