Crimes are human errors, and signify but little; perhaps the worse a man is by nature, the more room there is for grace. Gratitude is not a passion, but a sentiment of the soul. Great endowments cannot long be concealed. Nonetheless, I have been speaking with people, and sometimes find myself confused as to what they are trying to communicate because of shifts in person.

To understand the meaning of “person” when using pronouns, imagine a conversation between two people about a third person, the first person speaks using “I, me, my…,” the second person would be called, “you”; and when the two of them talked of a third person, they would say “he, she, they…” You should never forget the idea of “person” if you remember it as a three part conversation.

First person: I, me, my, we us, our

Second person: you, your

Third person: he, him, his, she, her, hers, they, them, their, one, anyone.

You may use all three of these groups of pronouns in a paper, but do not shit from one group to another without good reason.

Wrong: Few people know how to manage their time. One need not be an efficiency expert to realize that one could get a lot more done if he budgeted his time. Nor do you need to work very hard to get more organized.

Better: Everyone should know how to manage his or her time. One need not be an efficiency expert to realize that a person could get a lot more done if one budgeted one’s time. Nor does one need to work very hard to get more organized. (Too many one’s in a paragraph make it sound overly formal, and they led to the necessity of avoiding sexism by using s/he, or he or she, etc. Sentences can be revised to avoid using either you or one.)

Best: Many of us do not know how to manage our time. We need not be efficiency experts to realize that we could get a lot more done if we budgeted our time. Nor do we need to work very hard to get more organized.

Often students write you in a paper when they do not really mean you, the readers.

You would not believe how many times I saw that movie.

Such sentences are always improved by getting rid of the you.

I saw that movie many times.

Peace is with those who Love.