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Klaus-- > mistake to consider the issue of pronoun > use a mere stylistic issue I think it a mistake to consider stylistic issues "mere." Form has meaning and effect. > refrain from saying "it was found" when it is > we who were the ones who did the analysis Absolutely. The usual anti passive voice complaint is that it is weak writing. The phrasing you cite is, as you have said, phony in that it implies too much about authority and too little about responsibility. It is reprehensible when used as a deliberate subterfuge. My wife worked with someone who would answer client questions like "Why did you use figures from another city in our report" with "They were deemed to be equivalent" when the real answer was "we didn't have any facts so we used stuff from another client's report." It's one of the reasons she quit environmental consulting and went to nursing school. Ken-- >writing "the author believes" is roundabout. > This makes the meaning hard to understand. The reason the form is not uncommon in journalism is that reportorial writing attempts a legitimate form of neutrality and involves many sources. Injecting "I" in some instances would jerk the reader out of the third person narrative in a confusing manner since the reporter is, for the most part, not supposed to be in the foreground. If someone appears in a narrative more than once or twice, it's probably a good sign that something else is going on. As you said, this requires judgment, and the judgment usually depends on the specific circumstances. Gunnar ---------- Gunnar Swanson Design Office 1901 East 6th Street Greenville, North Carolina 27858 USA [log in to unmask] +1 252 258 7006 http://www.gunnarswanson.com at East Carolina University: [log in to unmask] +1 252 328 2839