I do math, You do math, We do math

I've noticed something while working on my ACT prep book.  I keep changing who is doing the action.

Excerpt 1:

"We change 22% to a decimal (0.22).  Then we multiply:
0.22 x 40=$8.80
This is the amount by which he increased the rate. We need to add this to the original rate of $40.
40+8.80=48.80"

Excerpt 2:

"I'm going to pick a value for x that satisfies x>1.  So I pick x=2.  Then I plug x=2 into all the answer choices."

Excerpt 3:

"Don't let the ♦ upset you.  You don't need to have seen it before, because they tell you everything you need to know about it."

Most of them are "we" because that's just the way I talk when I'm guiding kids through problems during tutoring.  "We're doing this together!  Hurray!  I'm helping you, but you're doing it!  You're doing it!  Let's tell your mom!"

I like this informal tone in the write up, because it feels softer than the usual dictated actions.  For instance, consider the difference

First, we need to factor (x²+5x-6) to get (x-6)(x+1)

vs

 Factor.  x²+5x-6=(x-6)(x+1)

The last one, to me screams, "This is how you do this.  It is the only way.  Why didn't you know this already?  Well, now you do.  Don't ever get it wrong again."  Or maybe I'm reading too much into it and getting over-dramatic.

But the more interesting thing here is when I talk about doing the action, when I talk about the student doing the action alone, and when I talk about us doing it together.  When I first noticed this I brushed it off as me just not being consistent because I was working on it in chunks over several days.  It will be easy to fix when I type it all up, so for now I'm not going to think about it. 

But then I started noticing that I change who is doing the problem depending on the problem itself.  So up there in Excerpt 2, I do the problem myself because I know very few kids who think of doing the problem this way.  (Or if they do, they get the right answer and then I don't go over it with them, so I'm working with a skewed sample.)  I'm going to work through it for them, show them what I did, and let them piece together how to emulate me.  We're not really doing it together.

Then up in Excerpt 3, "you" are confused and afraid of the diamond symbol.  I'm not.  This is a problem "you" have.

Obviously, I'm going to change all of these to something consistent because (1) consistency is key and (2) I'm starting to think some of them sound derogatory.  But it was interesting to notice it.  Something to think about not only as I proceed with this project, but also as I talk to my students.