[General] Should one spend their time building on the....

[Silverobama]

I was preparing some topics for my English club meetings. A friend of mine texted me one today "Should one spend your time building on the strengths or working on your weaknesses?" The intended meaning is: people usually have strengths and weaknesses. Someone people choose to improve their strengths so that their weaknesses will be neglected but others choose to correct their weaknesses so that they can better understand themselves and therefore the strengths could be easily seen.

Is the italic sentence natural?

 

[GoesStation]

Its meaning is clear enough but it's a bit of a mess. Here's one way to fix it, using slightly casual language that would be fine for the context:

Should you spend your time building on your strengths or working on your weaknesses?

 

[Rover_KE]

If you start with 'one' you have to continue with it. It sounds very stilted in modern English:

Should one spend one's time building on one's strengths or working on one's weaknesses?

 

[Silverobama]

I chose to use "one" because most of the participants are English learners here; they're almost beginners. When I use the pronoun "you", they will understand it as "you", not "me", "him" or "her". This will definitely cause some problems in their understanding so I used "one" instead.

I was told by someone, perhaps you, Rover that not to use "one" but I wonder if "you" is the best pronoun here? Can I use "someone"?

 

[Rover_KE]

I was told by someone, perhaps you, Rover, [STRIKE]that[/STRIKE] not to use "one" but I wonder if "you" is the best pronoun here? Can I use "someone"?

'You' is the most natural pronoun to use here. You could use 'someone' – in which case follow it up with 'their strengths' etc.

 

[emsr2d2]

Or you could use "people".

Should people spend time building on their strengths or working on their weaknesses?

I think it's a very good idea to encourage your members to learn and understand the use of "you" to mean "people" (when appropriate).

 

[tedmc]

Even though "you" means "people in general", I think it is more effective in catching the listener's attention.

Does the topic have to be in the form of a question?