"I" in academic and scholarly writing

[rm]

This is not a search for advice. This is a point of curiosity to me, because my education was sort of extreme and obsessive on this point, and it occurs to me that perhaps other fifth-graders were not scarred for life by writing papers that said things like "this author feels that Disney World would be an idea summer vacation destination for her family."

So, inquiring minds and all that....

[Poll #1563413]

Comments

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

First of all, my discipline is English, so that informs the following. In high school I was taught to use "I" sparingly, and got the message that there is a right and a wrong way to do it but I didn't know what those were. In college I avoided it, although I wasn't told to. I think I was trying to imitate a certain kind of authority. Now, I use it fairly often, because I feel like to do otherwise would be dishonest - I don't want to conceal my subject position because it's the basis for everything I'm saying. I'm drawn to criticism that is at least a little bit critical of its own agenda, and I don't trust the kind that screens its own authority. I have the impression you can only get away with this in the humanities, though.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I don't trust the kind that screens its own authority

I was taught, obsessively and in a way that shamed me, never to use "I" before I got to university. Then, in university, I was mocked for all my work sounding like it was written by old white dudes from the 19th century (and of course, I thought the mockers were complete heathens who didn't know anything). Now, I'm in a position where part of my authority comes from the emotional component implied by I, and I find myself having to juggle two layers of shame to make a point that should be quite simple to make, and, in no way involves random bullshit like "it is my opinion" (I mean, obviously, I'm writing the fucking thing).

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's a really tough bind - the double-shame, that is. I swear, writing education, it's a dangerous thing and teachers don't realize how dangerous...I just read an article by a student from China who got the third degree in American schools for writing the way she'd been taught (never go straight to the point, always efface the self and invoke authority figures to justify your point, etc.)