Give Yourself Credit

In a business writing class I taught recently, a participant shared a performance appraisal he had written about his work during the fourth quarter. He repeatedly included statements like "The deadline was met" instead of "I met the deadline," and "The results pleased the clients" instead of "My results pleased the clients." I had to ask him whether he met the deadline and whether the results were his. It wasn't obvious to me.

In your self-appraisals at work, do you use the pronouns I, me, and my? You should!

After all, it is your work, your results, and your accomplishments you are describing. That means I, me, and my belong in your appraisal. They also belong in your cover letters, job applications, and other places where people are deciding about you.

Don't make your reader guess. If you have been successful, say so. If your team has been successful, give yourself credit for working on or leading the team, with phrases such as "Working on the team, I . . ." or "I led the team's successful effort to. . . ."

For more ideas about communicating about yourself, read my current e-newsletter, Better Writing at Work. The theme is "Your Personal Rescue Plan," and it's all about being prepared to communicate with new clients and potential new employers. 

Also read my article "Writing About Ourselves: Bragging Without Blushing." And if you are writing an end-of-year self-appraisal, read my post "Writing Your Year-End Review."

Did you notice in the paragraph above that I wrote "my article" and "my post"? If I had used the instead of my, it would not have been clear who had written them--just as in performance appraisals.

My best wishes for the season,

Lynn
Syntax Training

Comments

[Lubna]

Hello Lynn,
You have a very interesting blog. I will mark it as one of my favourites and I do hope to be a regular visitor.
Seasons greetings. Wishing you and your loved ones a great 2009.
Warm regards,

[Lynn]

Thank you for your positive comments.

Happy new year!

[Iain Broome]

It's very common to see this in draft copy written by clients (I'm a copywriter). I almost always have to go through and change 'The' and 'customers' to 'I'/'we' and 'you'.

Good post!