Can a technical book be written in a
first-person style?
Question:Why are almost all technical books
written in third person? What is it about the
conversational style that readers don't like?
Answer:
While it would be easy to say "that's the way it's
been done for centuries", let's take a closer look at
writing in first-person (singular and plural).
The use of "I" in a manuscript is very personal, and
historically the "I" has been used to evoke empathy with
the character. Some editors say that technical and
computer books sound amateurish in first-person
singular, to wit.
"So, what do I do? I then tried to
regenerate the subschema . . "
Comments about first person singular
grammar in technical books
"almost the entire book is written in the
first-person singular. Weird."
Here is another commentary about the computer book " Understanding
Personal Computer Hardware", the reader noting that
reading technical text that is written in first person
singular make her feel uninvolved:
"I dislike books that are written in the first
person singular (except for the preface). Perhaps it
is just habit on my part, or perhaps it makes me
feel that I am somehow not involved in what is going
on."
We also note this concern
by an author who suggests that writing in first
person singular makes you appear self-involved
and solipsistic and that their publisher made the author
rewrite the text without first person:
"The publisher of Coffeehouse made us rewrite the
introduction and interstitial material because it
was written all in first person (singular and
plural).
The backlash against memoirs and first-person
nonfiction writing of all kinds (such as the {fray})
generally criticizes the I speaking as self-involved
or solipsistic."
Multiple Authors and first-person singular
O'Reilly Publishing is considered the Cadillac of quality in
the computer book market, and we see this reference from the
O'Reilly book "Python
Cookbook", noting that first-person singular is a editors
nightmare when you have multiple authors, each writing in
first-person:
"Conventions Used in This Book - Pronouns: the first
person singular is meant to convey that the recipe's or
chapter introduction's author is speaking (when multiple
credits are given for a recipe, the author is the first
person credited); however, even such remarks have at times
had to be edited enough that they may not reflect the
original author's intended meaning (we, the editors, tried
hard to avoid that, but we know we must have failed in some
cases, since there were so many remarks, and authorial
intent was often not entirely clear).
The second person is meant to refer to you, the reader.
The first person plural collectively indicates you, the
reader, plus the recipe's author and co-authors, the
editors, and my friend Joe (hi Joe!)—in other words, it's a
very inclusive "we" or "us."
Prentice Hall (a major technical book publisher), suggests
addressing readers in second person:
"Many good writers address their readers in the second
person (or second person understood) throughout their books.
In the same way you can invite the cooperation of the reader
by using "we" and "us" instead of the impersonal "one""
We see some bestselling Oracle books where the author moves
into first-person, such as this from "Oracle Expert One-on-one":
- Pg 431 first paragraph, first sentence: "...I was
looking at a very large implementation."
- Pg 254 Second paragraph, first sentence: "I find many
times people use..."
- Pg 1110 first paragraph, first sentence: "This is one of
the more common uses of LogMiner I've seen."
This, from the book "Optimizing Oracle Performance":
- Pg 155 Third paragraph, first sentence: "I shall
describe, a little later, ..."
- Pg 60 First paragraph, first sentence: "As I
described in Chapter 1, ..."
- Pg 311 First paragraph, first sentence: "In most
publications that are in print while I'm writing
this...."
This site has a excellent section about Personal vs.
Impersonal styles here:
The most important justification for using first
person style is that it is more natural and results in
simpler sentences. Poor sentence structure, notably
using passive rather than active style, is most commonly
caused when authors are forced to write in the third
person. Consider the following examples:
|
BAD |
GOOD |
|
The current
research work of the author is also
described |
I also
describe my current research work |
|
In the
previous report of the authors the
rationale for the proposed method was
discussed in detail |
We discussed
in detail the rationale for the proposed
method in our previous report |
|
However, it
was the writer’s belief that this
situation should not have occurred |
However, I
believed that this situation should not
have occurred |
|
Examination
and discussion of the of the results
obtained, are necessary before a
decision can be taken |
We must
examine and discuss the results before
we decide |
|
|
