'We' for 'I' in writing

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 10:01 PM 6/16/2005, you wrote:
>If we have discussed this before, I apologize. What I want to know is how one
>might communicate to the folks who created MicrosoftWord's grammar checker
>that some of their advice is totally crazy. For example, in a legal
>document I
>wrote:
>
>"During the academic year 2005­6 I will chair both the Linguistics PProgram
>and the Department of English at Duke. ..."
>
>Word insists that this should be changed to read, "During the academic year
>2005­6 we will chair both the Linguistics Program and the Departmentt of
>English
>at Duke. ..."
>
>I have gained a little weight since January, but not enough to qualify me as
>plural. Nor am I the queen of England (who is reported to have once said, "We
>and our husband are glad"). Nor am I a nurse--who apparently can get away
>with
>saying things like "It is time for our enema" (oh, but that is a different
>'we'--here it means 'you'). Could this be some kind of Yankee reflex of the
>mysterious, ghostly, singular Y'ALL?
>
>Does ANYBODY teach students to write papers in which they refer to themselves
>as crowds of people or stuffy old queens? That is soooo 1930s, it seems to me
>(us?)

Margaret Thatcher, who tended to put herself on the level of the Queen,
once announced, upon the birth of her son's child, "We are a
grandmother."  Even the British papers made fun of it.  I cite it when I
teach Brown and Gilman's article on pronouns.