Yours Truly Examined
February 4, 2017
G.D.O'Bradovich III
1
Recently, several individuals have queried me regarding my use of “Yours Truly”, therefore, I have decided to address this issue myself.
The modern academic writing convention is to remain focused on research and conclusions, and references to oneself are correctly considered superfluous to serious inquiry. The inquisitive reader has no concern for the author’s feelings, personal views, or adventures and, generally speaking, individual experiences and opinions are not applicable to a wider audience and for these reasons first person pronouns should be avoided in serious writings, that is, the modern writing convention is to avoid writing about oneself; “I”. “me”, and “my”. There are exceptions to this prohibition, for example, a personal essay. In academic writing, if one occasionally writes about oneself, the accepted convention is to utilize the wording “Yours Truly”.
Most uses of personal nouns ["I"]. personal direct objects ["me"], and personal possessives ["my"], are found in various informal writings, such as novels, and are not considered to be in bad form. In fact, most modern readers would not consider the appearance of these personal references to be distracting or inappropriate.
The convention of not starting sentences with “and” is also modern. Once again, the majority of readers will not be concerned, or realize, if every sentence begins with “and”, until this style is brought to the reader’s attention. For example, on average, every eleventh word in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is “and”.
Likewise, until an abundance of personal pronouns are brought to the reader's attention, this self absorbed style will generally be unnoticed. Saint Paul's authentic epistles are known to overuse this style, hence, the epistle to the Hebrews is not considered part of the Pauline corpus for the noticeable lack of self references.
One would expect Saint Paul's epistles to be mostly about Christian doctrine, with some personal information. Although there are examples of Christian teaching or doctrine found in the Pauline epistles, as well as appeals to conventional morality, the majority of the text seems to be dedicated to what Saint Paul experienced and said. Not surprisingly, neither Saint Paul’s personal experiences nor his intentions provide guidance to Christians or Christian churches. In essence, the Pauline letters, when considered as a whole, are correctly understood as a novel.
The constant personal references in Saint Paul's writings can not indicate ignorance of modern writing conventions, as he clearly avoids beginning sentences with “and”, thereby either indicating his, or the redactor’s, familiarity with this modern writing convention. Therefore, we must conclude that Saint Paul's writings are not like a novel, but are a novel, a novel chronicling an early Christian missionary who travels to foreign lands, meets exotic people, and encounter various perils.
This novel has all the elements of a best seller and we offer the Gentle Researcher possible reasons the Bible remains a publishing staple:
The modern academic writing convention is to remain focused on research and conclusions, and references to oneself are correctly considered superfluous to serious inquiry. The inquisitive reader has no concern for the author’s feelings, personal views, or adventures and, generally speaking, individual experiences and opinions are not applicable to a wider audience and for these reasons first person pronouns should be avoided in serious writings, that is, the modern writing convention is to avoid writing about oneself; “I”. “me”, and “my”. There are exceptions to this prohibition, for example, a personal essay. In academic writing, if one occasionally writes about oneself, the accepted convention is to utilize the wording “Yours Truly”.
Most uses of personal nouns ["I"]. personal direct objects ["me"], and personal possessives ["my"], are found in various informal writings, such as novels, and are not considered to be in bad form. In fact, most modern readers would not consider the appearance of these personal references to be distracting or inappropriate.
The convention of not starting sentences with “and” is also modern. Once again, the majority of readers will not be concerned, or realize, if every sentence begins with “and”, until this style is brought to the reader’s attention. For example, on average, every eleventh word in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is “and”.
Likewise, until an abundance of personal pronouns are brought to the reader's attention, this self absorbed style will generally be unnoticed. Saint Paul's authentic epistles are known to overuse this style, hence, the epistle to the Hebrews is not considered part of the Pauline corpus for the noticeable lack of self references.
One would expect Saint Paul's epistles to be mostly about Christian doctrine, with some personal information. Although there are examples of Christian teaching or doctrine found in the Pauline epistles, as well as appeals to conventional morality, the majority of the text seems to be dedicated to what Saint Paul experienced and said. Not surprisingly, neither Saint Paul’s personal experiences nor his intentions provide guidance to Christians or Christian churches. In essence, the Pauline letters, when considered as a whole, are correctly understood as a novel.
The constant personal references in Saint Paul's writings can not indicate ignorance of modern writing conventions, as he clearly avoids beginning sentences with “and”, thereby either indicating his, or the redactor’s, familiarity with this modern writing convention. Therefore, we must conclude that Saint Paul's writings are not like a novel, but are a novel, a novel chronicling an early Christian missionary who travels to foreign lands, meets exotic people, and encounter various perils.
This novel has all the elements of a best seller and we offer the Gentle Researcher possible reasons the Bible remains a publishing staple:
A religious fanatic who has a life altering experience.
Adventures throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Travels by land and voyages by sea. Political intrigue at the governor's palace. Forsaken by friends. Acrimonious debates at the center of religious life. A man on a mission against all odds. Multiple “close calls” with various groups intent on murdering the protagonist. Many successes alternate with many disappointments. |
In conclusion, outside of personal essays, autobiographies, and novels, to write about oneself is considered to be indicative of an inferior style, while I feel this style is in poor taste.