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I found when I write e-mail's, I start 90% of my sentences in I's; however, I don't know how not to...

Here's an abstracted, but actual e-mail I've sent:

Dear Mr Zuckerburg,

As requested, I've devised a logo .....
I started off playing with fonts/texts, finding one I thought was appropriate.
I chose a strong uniform font to make the text memorable.
To keep the design minimal, while being distinct ...., I'd thought of incorporating a shape into the name.
I experimented with a few designs before I drew a .....
I also played around with the background, and fou.....

Regards, Tobi.

What are the best ways to eradicate them, in general?

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    Well, when the topic of the email is "things I've done", it's pretty natural to refer to yourself frequently. Unfortunately, this question is not well-suited to our mission here at ELU, where we hope to give "as-objective-as-possible" answers to questions with possibly-objective answers; it's a stylistic choice, based on an opinion. You might try asking over at writers.stackexchange.com instead.
    – Hellion
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 16:31
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    It is sort of hard to not repeat something that is integral to conjugating verbs. Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 16:33
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    Honestly, there are so many stackexchange forums; it's I'm never posting in the correct one.
    – Tobi
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 16:35
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    You could make it a bullet list, and put the subject before the list.
    – Barmar
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 16:43
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    It's impossible. You can only use fewer. Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 21:45

2 Answers 2

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Judging by your "abstracted" email, I'd say you could eliminate quite a few I's by either resorting to bullet points or by making your sentences longer. Simply provide a series of actions you took, separate them with semi-colons, and place the I either before or after the list. For example (with the I before the list),

As you've requested, I've done a number of things to devise a logo, including playing with fonts and texts to find an appropriate one; choosing a strong, uniform font to make the text memorable; using a minimalistic--but distinct--style; incorporating into the logo a shape; and experimenting with a number of different designs and different backgrounds for the logo.

An example with the I following the list:

Playing with fonts and texts to find an appropriate one; choosing a strong, uniform font to make the text memorable; using a minimalistic--but distinct--style; incorporating into the logo a shape; and experimenting with a number of different designs and different backgrounds for the logo are a few of the steps I've taken to provide you with the logo you've requested.

Of course you can accomplish the same thing by using bullet points if you deem them appropriate for this particular email.

By the way, you needn't combine every action you took into one sentence with numerous semi-colons. You could mix things up by doing something similar in two or more sentences. The point is this: By providing a list and then putting the I either before or after each list obviate the use of too many I's.

Just make sure that each item in your enumeration of items begins with the same verb tense in order to maintain parallelism (e.g., used . . . used . . . used; using . . . using . . . using; making . . . making . . . making; designing . . . designing . . . designing; and so on).

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Remove some of the I's? Passive voice will help at times. This changes the meaning a shade here and there, so you'd have to ensure accuracy.

Dear Mr Zuckerburg,

As requested, I've devised a logo .....

I started off playing with fonts/texts, finding ones that were appropriate.

The strong uniform font makes the text memorable.

To keep the design minimal, while being distinct ...., a shape was incorporated into the name.

After some experimentation, I drew a ....

The background ...

Regards, Tobi.

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