I had been using ‘we’ in my essays and in conversations. Priests & pastors after all use them often in their sermons. I had surmised that using ‘we’ provided an interpersonal connection with the audiences I address.
Some advice gleaned from the Internet, however, tell me to avoid using personal pronouns and that I should on the other hand use third-person nouns. For instance, instead of you, I, or we, I should use ‘one,’ ‘this writer,’ or ‘people.’ Third person nouns would make the writing look more formal, more authoritative, the website wannabe advisors say.
I don’t fully agree with the idea. Third person nouns seem to make whatever I write less interesting, or to put it bluntly: boring.
Essays using ‘I’ and ‘you’ are more riveting; they hold my attention. I guess it’s because using ‘I’ and ‘you’ imply that the author’s content comes straight from experience and simultaneously with insightful advice. ‘I’ and ‘you’ simply does make the author’s storytelling more attractive to read.
I would agree with the wannabe web-based advisers that using ‘we,’, would make me look pretentious. Maybe priests & pastors could get away with ‘we’ in their sermons but as I am neither nor am I like them in recognisable authority, I should avoid ‘we’ in my verbal & written discourses.
I could imagine not a few readers (facetiously assuming I have a significant number of such) thinking like Tonto whenever I use ‘we.’ And it is with a bit of anxiety that some readers would, that I take it upon myself to avoid using the said pronoun.
I do listen to sermons of priests & pastors. If I do get the motivation to go to church in the first place.
Ellery's Essays 
