[Suzerain of Sheol]

Is that formal writing for academic essays and the like? Because that's completely different. :p

I'm wholly in favor of obeying the rules there. And the "you" thing makes perfect sense in that context. You don't address your audience in that sort of writing, as a rule.

Second-person prose is very difficult to write in effectively, and I certainly wouldn't recommend it, but I do think it could potentially be done well in the right context, though I think it would have to be limited to shorter pieces.

On the other hand, I'm not really convinced that the essay structure really is the best way of organizing and conveying information. The literary theory essays I'm reading right now come off as complete gibberish and I can think of far, far easier ways to write the same information that would be more accessible to someone reading them. >_<