{"id":1,"date":"2016-08-03T15:42:55","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T15:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/?p=1"},"modified":"2019-11-22T12:29:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-22T20:29:22","slug":"business-is-it-not-they","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/business-is-it-not-they\/","title":{"rendered":"A Business Is an It, Not a They"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to #WritingWednesday<\/strong>, where I talk about ways to improve your copywriting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this inaugural post, I address one of my biggest pet peeves: mistakenly referring to a business as some unquantifiable they<\/em>, rather than a proper it<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounds so conspiratorial – who are they<\/em>? Do you mean a business’s management team? A restaurant’s chefs? If that’s the case, by all means, use they<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in most cases, to refer to a business as an entity, you should use it<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To all the Mitt Romneys out there, I realize that in America, “corporations are people, my friend.” But even to accept that premise, a<\/strong> corporation is a single entity<\/strong>, making it “a person,” not a plural entity of “people” (although it’s comprised of people).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, it’s common parlance to hear something like, “I only go to McDonald’s because I like their fries.” But just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s right – certainly not when you’re writing for<\/strong> business about<\/strong> business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To illustrate the point, I visited the New York Times<\/em>‘s business section online to grab an example<\/a> from today’s news. Emphasis added is mine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deutsche Bank had said that it<\/strong><\/em> would no longer finance so-called mountaintop removal projects, which involve extracting coal from the surface of mountains, often leaving large gashes in the landscape. But its<\/strong><\/em> public policy stopped short of the commitment to a broad retreat that many of the other large banks had made.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In the same paragraph\u00a0was this sentence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other large banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, revised their<\/strong><\/em> policies to reflect a broader pullback from coal mining.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Keep in mind that because JPMorgan and BOA are grouped together (making the subject\u00a0plural), they<\/em> is the proper word.

It all begs the question – why is it so common that we call businesses “they,” anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can think of three reasons. The first is that in business, people take all the actions. When Deutsche Bank decided it<\/strong> wouldn’t finance mountaintop removals,\u00a0the move\u00a0was likely by the direction of the board or a company officer. However, because the decision-maker is\u00a0not specified, and the company is referred to in the abstract, the “it rule” still applies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same article provides an example where the people are specified, calling for “they”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, six senior members<\/strong><\/em> of Deutsche Bank\u2019s metals and mining investment banking team, which was responsible for overseeing deals in the coal industry, said they<\/strong><\/em> were decamping for Jefferies, a smaller, scrappy New York investment bank…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Another underlying cause is that in order to sound more friendly and approachable, companies often talk about themselves using the inclusive\u00a0we<\/em>. Watch a few commercials, and you’ll almost certainly hear,\u00a0“At Company X, we believe\u2026” I’ve certainly written that way about my own clients for years. It’s an effort to humanize that which isn’t human – a brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, a sometimes cited reason for the it\/they conundrum is a difference in British English and American English. Several sites I found claimed that it’s more common in the Queen’s English to refer to a corporation as they.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, after spending just a few clicks on bbc.co.uk,\u00a0dailymail.co.uk, and telegraph.co.uk, it’s clear that all three news outlets refer to a business as a singular it<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, it made me think back to that iconic Frankie Goes to Hollywood t-shirt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"original\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Alluding to the song “Relax,” the 1984 shirt caused confusion among American fans who didn’t understand why Frankie Say<\/strong> Relax, rather than Frankie Says<\/strong> Relax. But Frankie wasn’t a guy; it was the band. None of the British band’s members were named Frankie, either. So maybe that British\/American explanation has some merit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever the reason, Charles Ave Say A Business Is An It, Not a They.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to #WritingWednesday, where I talk about ways to improve your copywriting. In this inaugural post, I address one of my biggest pet peeves: mistakenly referring to a business as some unquantifiable they, rather than a proper it. It sounds so conspiratorial – who are they? Do you mean a business’s management team? A restaurant’sContinue reading <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[44,46,45,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content-marketing","category-copywriting","category-email-marketing","category-marketing"],"yoast_head":"\nA Business Is an It, Not a They - On the Corner of Charles Ave<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It sounds so conspiratorial - who are they? 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Copywriting Tips to Start Using Today Watch out for repetitive redundancy ATM\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Copywriting"","block_context":{"text":"Copywriting","link":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/category\/marketing\/copywriting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"improve-copywriting","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5167,"url":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/write-better-copy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":1},"title":"Write Better Copy: a Lesson from Donald Trump","author":"Kim Kohatsu","date":"February 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Copywriting is stylistic, so for every rule, there is usually an exception. Oftentimes, to impart a conversational quality, it's fine to overlook certain grammatical rules \u2014 split infinitives like Star Trek's\u00a0\"to boldly go\" or adverb\/adjective confusion like Apple's \"Think Different\" may rile linguists, but they've proved memorable. I myself flout\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Content Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Content Marketing","link":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/category\/marketing\/content-marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"improve-copywriting","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5485,"url":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/own-your-gerunds\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":2},"title":"Own Your Gerunds: The Grammar Mistake You Might Not Know You’re Making","author":"Kim Kohatsu","date":"May 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I've heard eloquent speakers make the same grammar mistake: instead of using a possessive determiner (my, your, our) to describe a gerund, they use a pronoun (me, you, we). But what the heck does all that mean? And have you been making the same mistake? Let's break it down. What's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Copywriting"","block_context":{"text":"Copywriting","link":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/category\/marketing\/copywriting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"improve-copywriting","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5369,"url":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/who-or-whom\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":3},"title":"Who or Whom? – The Easiest Way to Know","author":"Kim Kohatsu","date":"May 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Who or whom? There's an easy way to know, without needing to know about subjects, objects, and prepositions. Use who whenever you would use he Who\u00a0should be used as the subject of a sentence, in the same way you would use the word he. Take this example: (Who\/whom) just texted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Copywriting"","block_context":{"text":"Copywriting","link":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/category\/marketing\/copywriting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"improve-copywriting","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4909,"url":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/between-among\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":4},"title":"Between Us, Among Them","author":"Kim Kohatsu","date":"April 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In today's edition of #WritingWednesday, let's discuss between and among. If you're a grammar nerd like me, you might think you know where this piece is going. The common wisdom is that you use between to describe two things, and among for any quantity greater than two. For example, This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Copywriting"","block_context":{"text":"Copywriting","link":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/category\/marketing\/copywriting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"improve-copywriting","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6058,"url":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/how-to-make-things-plural\/","url_meta":{"origin":1,"position":5},"title":"How to Make Things Plural: The Correct Plural Forms of 5 Tricky Nouns","author":"Kim Kohatsu","date":"August 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The English language can be a tricky mistress. But when expressed well, she's a beauty. If you're a copywriter\u00a0or blogger, I assume you already know the basics of how to make things plural (i.e., man \u2192 men, child \u2192 children, wife \u2192 wives, etc.). Instead, I created this guide on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Copywriting"","block_context":{"text":"Copywriting","link":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/category\/marketing\/copywriting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"improve-copywriting","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/writing-wednesday.png?fit=1024%2C512&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6580,"href":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/6580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charlesavemktg.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}