"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

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

In K-12 it was taught as a not-unbreakable rule--you shouldn't do it most of the time except when you're asked to write about your opinions/beliefs/experiences or if you're smart enough to do it creatively--though it was drilled into us pretty hard to avoid any sort of meta-writing--"I am going to write about," "In an earlier paragraph I said," etc.--and to NEVER EVER use "you" or otherwise address the reader.

It was never mentioned in my community college writing courses or at all at University, not even in the hardcore grammar, syntax, and essay-writing courses I took because I was working as a writing coach for ESL and low-skills students. It was taken as sort of a given that sometimes it's okay and sometimes it's not and at this point most of us understand the difference. When I was helping students with their essays I tried to explain the different situations in which it's okay and not, and they seemed to understand.