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Û

539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms

Grammar and academic English | 285

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You and one

147b

You

and one can both be used to refer to people in general, and to the academic

community of writer(s)/speaker and readers/listeners. You is less formal than one.

You

in these generic uses is frequent in both written and spoken academic style,

although it is considerably less frequent than we in written academic texts:

We could argue, however, that the probability of an uptake event is not fixed,

but varies in a predictable way. It is possible, for example, that the more words

you already know, the easier it is to acquire the meaning of new words that you

encounter. 

[from a text about the architecture of cathedrals]

If 

you consider, for example, the plan of the Cistercian monasteries, where the

church was designed to receive abbot, monks, lay brothers and the

congregation, it was the position allocated to each of these elements within the

edifice which led to its being partitioned.

[virology lecture]

We’ll see in some detail in a bit, viruses are quite unique in the way that they

carry their genetic material and the most important feature is that viruses will

only carry RNA or DNA. 

You never find both in the same virus particle. 

One

is also used with generic reference to people in general or to the academic

community of a particular discipline, but it is considerably less frequent than we

or you, especially in spoken academic style:

On biological grounds 

one might suspect that the changes induced by early life

experience are in an evolutionary context adaptive.

[lecturer in History of English tutorial session]

I mean this theory that showed through analogy, now I think it’s absolutely

right, but I suppose 

one has to say ‘probably’ because of course no one exactly

knows how this happened. 

Mixing of one and you occurs in the same discourse, especially in spoken contexts:

[immunology lecture]

One has to actually have the T cells there to isolate the T cells and show that

they are reacting against a specific antigen. And are therefore said to be the

main mediators of cell mediated immunity. 

You actually need the T cells

themselves to demonstrate that they are responding to the antigen and having

an immune effect.