Common Errors in Law Firm Publishing (#1)
I’m spending today editing a law firm’s practice area descriptions, and I’m finding the usual problems. One of them is a frequent change in point of view.
Recall the three points of view:
- first person — speaking about oneself; e.g., “I am short.”
- second person — speaking about the listener; e.g., “You are tall.”
- third person — speaking to someone about someone else: “She is skinny.”
When it comes to an exposition like the description of a practice group, point of view is best kept steady. Frequent changes to point of view yield an inconsistency that can burden readers, and that’s not a good thing to do.
Here’s my advice: pick a point of view, and stick with it. Don’t use third person to say one thing about your firm, and then shift to first person to say another thing, and then shift back to third person to say yet another thing. That’s not good style.
The pros don’t do it, so why should you?
