"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

[pocketmouse]

I have vague rememberances of it being Not Allowed in high school and before that, but only because I (think?) I remember being surprised to find out in college that it was all right. I think it also depends on your area of concentration -- I never remember it being okay in scientific papers, but whole books are written using 'I' and 'we' in anthropology and archaeology. I think in theatre history texts it tended to be used only in parentheticals, footnotes, and other asides. No one really threw a shit fit either way, though.