First, second and third person writing

The point of view or person you choose for your writing helps create your tone and perspective.

• First person writing uses 'I' and 'we'. 'I' writing is personal, but 'we' is often used collectively to refer to an organisation or group.
• With second person writing, you talk directly to your reader using 'you' language. The second person is used extensively in marketing material and also to provide information.
• Third person writing uses 'he', 'she', 'it' and 'they'. It is more formal than the first and second person and is often used in reports, policies and scholarly texts.

Most of us use the right person instinctively. But if you're stuck think about what you want to achieve and your audience.

Second person writing
There is an increasing trend, particularly in marketing writing, to use the second person extensively. It is powerful. 'You' language helps creates the sense that the writer is talking directly to you, so you feel engaged and involved. It's also a useful technique to help you, the writer, concentrate on what the reader wants to know rather than what you want to say. When people write in the second person their language is often more active and direct.

Third person writing
Third person writing is more authoritative and objective than first or second person writing. It's the language we're used to reading in our daily newspapers.

Third person writing is also more distant. This can be a disadvantage if you want to engage your reader, but an advantage if you're writing about negative topics, such as poor management, and don't want to imply that your reader is guilty (even if you know they are).

First person writing
'I' is personal and informal and is still not appropriate in a lot of business and marketing writing. But businesses of all sizes often use 'we' to personalise their services. For example, 'Discover what we're doing across the regions'.

Don't confuse your reader by switching person in the middle of a sentence. For example say:

After you attend a course, you must fill out an evaluation form.
or
After people attend a course, they must fill out an evaluation form.
Not
After a person attends a course, you must fill out an evaluation form.

For fun
There's a website that claims it can give you an instant indication of how customer-focused your website is. I'm sure it's based on how often you use the word 'you' compared with 'we'. Try it out and see how well you score!
http://www.futurenowinc.com/wewe.htm

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Writing referencing styles

The two main reference systems used in business writing are the author-date system and the documentary-note system. The Vancouver system, which is similar to the documentary-note system, is used in scientific writing. Many organisations develop their own referencing style based on either the author-date or documentary-note system.

Referencing within text

The author-date system, also known as the Harvard system, identifies in brackets the author’s name and date of publication.

     This study (Brown, 2008) demonstrates...

The documentary-note system uses endnotes or footnotes for references and comments.

     The study¹demonstrates...

Reference lists and bibliographies

People use the terms ‘reference list’ and ‘bibliography’ interchangeably. Both appear at the end of a document and are written in a similar manner, but a reference list documents all the works that were specifically referred to in the text, while a bibliography includes other works that were consulted as the document was being compiled.

The author-date and documentary-note system have several features in common:

• Books and periodical titles are italicised.
• Single quotation marks are used for article names and for chapters within books.
• Items within a reference are separated by commas (though there is no comma between the author and date in the author-date system).
• No full stops are used after authors’ initials.

The difference between the author-date and documentary-note systems lies in how the author’s name is written and in the position of the date of publication.

• In the author-date system, the author's first name or initials follows the family name, and is followed by the date.
• In the documentary-note system, the author's initials precede the family name, and the date is placed at the end of the citation.
• In the author-date system, the author’s first name or initials follows the family name, and is followed by the date.
• In the documentary-note system, the author’s initials precede the family name, and the date is placed at the end of the citation.

Examples of author-date references
Book: Flann, E, Hill, B 2004, The Australian Editing Handbook, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton.
Article: Tadros, E February 2009, ‘Shoppers log on for a bargain’, The Sun-Herald.

Examples of documentary-note references
Book: E Flann, B Hill, The Australian Editing Handbook, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, 2004.
Article: Tadros, E, ‘Shoppers log on for a bargain’, The Sun-Herald, February 2009.

Page number references

When referring to page numbers in the body of a document, use page or pages. In references, abbreviate to p. for page or pp. for pages. Have a space between the abbreviation and the page number.

     There is more information on company fraud on page 98.
     Fraud (pp. 98–103) is a major contributor to the company’s losses.

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