Use of "your": Clarification

Subject: Use of "your": Clarification
From: Kris Olberg <kjolberg -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM>
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 1997 18:39:25 -0500

Great discussion so far! But, as Bill Burns pointed out, I want to clarify
that my original question centers on the use of the possessive "your," not
on the use of second v. third person. Here's an example of a possessive
"your" in a sentence. Should the sentence read:

"Your computer turns off automatically
when you shut it down using the Win95
shutdown procedure."

or:

"The computer turns off automatically
when you shut it down using the Win95
shutdown procedure."

Bill gave me a clue as to why we adopted this originally: it doesn't
translate well. But it just SEEMS that there may be a more compelling
reason beyond that ...

Anybody got some real data beyond opinions?

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