Graduate Program

English

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

2010

Thesis Director

Terri Fredrick

Thesis Committee Member

Rosemary Buck

Thesis Committee Member

Melissa Ames

Abstract

Traditional grammar instruction prescribes that you should be used only to address the actual reader of the text in academic writing; even the direct address is to be used sparingly. Yet an examination of published writing in a variety of genres shows that experienced writers use you in a variety of ways-to refer to the writer, a third person, anyone, and to illustrate a hypothetical, habitual, or proverbial situation, and more. Based on previous scholarship and published examples, I create categories of the referents and functions of you that are used today in spoken and written English. Then, I apply these categories to student writing by conducting a study of advertisement analysis essays at Eastern Illinois University. The student sample reveals that students use you according to the same categories, but often times in less sophisticated ways than published writers. Students often use you as a means to generalize, speculate, and lecture, which evidences that they are grappling with analysis and academic discourse. I conclude this thesis by suggesting ways that instructors can approach you in their classrooms in order to help students use you in rhetorically effective ways.

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