Learn English – Impersonal ‘we’

pronouns

So, in an essay, one is not supposed to use first or second person pronouns, of course. But I recently made the mistake of including "Many of us today…" which my teacher told me I should change to avoid the personal pronoun usage. My thinking was that I was using the 'we' in an impersonal way, referring to people in general rather than 'you and me' specifically. I know I wouldn't be able to convince him to allow this even if this usage is correct, but this question has piqued my curiosity. So, can 'we/us/our' be used impersonally?

Best Answer

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live."

This is the first sentence in an essay titled "The White Album" (in a book by that name) written by Joan Didion, who is considered an excellent American stylist.

The question to ask yourself when we/us/our are used in an essay is who is "we"?

In Didion's essay, she is speaking of everyone--all people. She goes on, a few sentences later:

"We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the 'ideas' with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience."

Another essay in the same book begins:

"Some of us who live in arid parts of the world think about water with a reverence others find excessive."

Here "we" (us) refers to a subset of all the people who live in dry regions; Didion limits the scope to "some" of these people.

If a writer of an editorial for a newspaper says "We disagree with the position of the administration on this policy," "we" refers to the editorial staff of the newspaper. This is literally the editorial "we".

If a European politician (say, Angela Merkel) says "We favor XYZ," she may be speaking on behalf of her country or perhaps of the European Union. It is likely that she will make clear on whose behalf she is speaking.

A spokesperson for a government administration (US, British, whatever) will use "we" to express the position of the administration: "We support this legislation."

If I as an author write about the need to strengthen our national defenses, I am implicitly speaking to citizens of my country about my country's national defenses. This is an error. I should have said, "The United States needs to strengthen its national defenses."

On the other hand, if I give a political speech and say, "We should elect candidates who will be concerned with our goals and aspirations," I'm implicitly talking to an audience (in the room or not) who are potential voters in the place where I'm a voter. "We" is appropriate here because I want to identify with the audience and gain their support.

As Azuaron's answer points out, an impersonal reference requires a phrase like "most people," "many people," "some people," modified any way you like.

The co-authors of a joint article (or often a single article) for a scholarly journal often find it inconvenient to avoid referring to themselves as "we". But essays (editorial, op-eds, magazine stories) are more expressive and free stylistically. Nevertheless, it's always important to figure out to whom "we" refers.