This is a rule schoolchildren are, or at least used to be, told when they’re taught how to write a letter properly. Does this still apply, or is it outdated? Would you feel offended if a private or business letter to you began with I? What about e-mail or SDMB posts?
Personally, I’m trying to avoid it if possible, but if I think it lends itself to begin a text with I, I’ll do so, rather than search around for an alternative formulation. I’m interested in other people’s opinion about that.
I’ve never heard of this rule, but it sounds silly and outdated.
I have never heard of any such rule, and can’t imagine why anyone would ever have advocated it. Every day, I see professional correspondence that begins with “I.”
I remember that rule, too, and every so often it rears its ugly head and makes letter-writing awkward.
I think it is obvious that if such a rule does exist, people are not applying it to SDMB posts 
Probably my teacher simply had his own views of proper writing.
I suppose I shan’t forward you this letter I received that begins:
“I am happy to inform you that you have been selected as the winner …”
I think the ‘rule’ was only a means to encourage good letter etiquette, especially in personal letters. You should open with greetings and inquiring of the reader’s well being, rather than launching into a paragraph about yourself.
But I remember the rule, too, Schnitte.
I also remember being told it was rude to list one’s self first. For example, I shouldn’t write, “Join me and Schnitte for lunch on Tuesday.” I should write “Join Schnitte and me for lunch on Tuesday.”
Maybe we both had quirky teachers. Or maybe we had the SAME teacher.
Schnitte, your teacher’s rule sounded a lot like a “superstition”:
Bryan A. Garner, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage 631 (1998). So I looked up “superstition” in my trusty usage dictionary and, of the eleven examples that it specifically calls out, found this superstition listed ninth:
Id. at 632.
That particular superstition isn’t exactly what you were asking about. But the cross-referenced article on the “first person” sheds some light on where your teacher’s notion may have come from:
Id. at 292-93.
We need to say I in the IMHO since we are give our opinions. But I think the rule you’re remembering (perhaps) is that you shouldn’t start EVERY sentence with “I”. I think it’s okay to do it, but following that rule encourages more creative writing.
If you say “I was glad to meet you yesterday.” or “I was very impressed with your presentation.” That’s not offensive…you’re complimenting your reader!
The rule that if you’re talking about yourself and someone else, I have heard before. I think that’s a nice curteous gesture to list yourself last. And think about how odd it would be to say, “I and you make a great pair.”
The rule of listing the first-person pronoun last in a series of two or more subjects is a different issue than the OP. That rule is widely (as far as I know, universally) accepted.
Here I disagree. This forum is called In My Humble Opinion because, I assume, “IMHO” is always implied, and need not be explicitly stated over and over. We are exchanging opinions about matters that are generally not susceptible of factual knowledge, and the opinions expressed here usually can’t be anything but our personal views.
The article on “first person” that I was quoting from in my earlier post concluded with this paragraph, which I omitted before because it wasn’t really relevant to the OP:
Whether one adds “IMHO” to an opinion here is a matter of personal preference. Sometimes doing so seems like a good idea, but sometimes it seems unnecessary. IMHO.
I learned this rule in some dippy “business” class in high school, and I also heard it several times when I first began working in an office.
It seems obvious there are just some times when the most direct and appropriate way to start off a business letter is with “I …” But the value I got from knowing the rule was to be a little more aware of the overall impression of my business letters. It was striking to me how often they started with “I,” and it wasn’t uncommon for every paragraph to start with “I” as well. Now, I always give at least a little thought to an alternate beginning, just to mix things up. I think the overall tone and style of the letter is improved.
There’s also a thing against passive voice in business writing, and of course, because you can never win, avoiding the “I” often leads right into passive voice. Again, rather than completely avoiding the passive voice, I just try to be aware of it and make sure my business correspondence doesn’t lean too heavily in either direction.
I would sum up my feelings by saying “it’s a good rule to know, but not necessarily good to follow it 100% of the time.” I don’t think it’s silly or outdated if you’re just using it as a guideline when you go back to review and possibly edit your letter before sending it off.
I remember an old fuddy duddy teacher telling us this rule, but then he was the same guy who hated the word “got”, and would give us lists of sentences in which we’d have to replace “got” with something else. Bloody stupid, if you ask me. Use whatever feels right.
OK, I was being too absolute. My point was that it’s not inappropriate to use “I” in IMHO.
In writing my business letters, I frequently begin with “I” (or sometimes “We” when I’m writing on behalf of my firm).
When writing to someone who may not be immediately familiar with who I am or why I am writing, I almost always begin with an introductory sentence or two saying who I am or why I am writing: “I represent the Plaintiff in this action . . . .” “I am writing in response to your job listing. . . .” “I was a passenger on your flight number . . . .”
There’s little that’s more annoying than picking up a letter and scratching your head over the question: “Who the heck is this and why is she writing to me?”
Gotcha. Sorry for the unnecessary disagreement, then. (I am probably a little oversensitive because a Doper in another thread last weekend got very huffy because I disagreed with him without using “IMHO” in my post. Nobody else in the thread had been using it, either, but evidently he wasn’t very comfortable with the different viewpoint.)
Amen! Especially when the writer’s name doesn’t show up until the signature line a page or more later.
Oddly enough, nearly all of my business correspondence begins with “I”. It is the briefest way to begin an introduction. Likewise, if I wish to state “I received your package”, how better to begin a letter that was specifically written for that intent?
“Got” is technically incorrect in a few instances. As the past tense or in the phrase “have got,” it’s perfectly fine. For example “I got the keys from mom” or “I’ve got a lot of homework to do” are both perfectly decent uses of “got.”
Where it’s wrong is using “got” instead of the construction “have got.” Technically, “got” alone is not a synonym for “have.” So, “I got a car” to mean “I have a car” is incorrect. If you mean “I received a car” then it’s fine. I assume the way this form work its way into the colloquial is simply through the dropping of the “have.” Just like “I got to go to work” is correctly rendered in formal English as “I’ve got to go to work.”
But a simple blanket rule that “got” is wrong is woefully incorrect.
And in informal or spoken English, I ('ve) got no problem with dropping the “have” from the phrase “have got.”