"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

[byzantienne.livejournal.com]

I was taught, in probably the same obsessive and deliberate fashion that you were (oh, NYC private schools) to never, ever use 'I'.

And then I got to college and had an actual professor of rhetoric, and he repurposed it for me. 'I' is occasionally immensely rhetorically effective and should be employed in such situations.

I very rarely use it in academic writing, but I don't find it egregious. Mostly, I don't use it unless I am attempting to claim authority or deliberately point out where my opinions differ from a specific historiographical school.

And yes, it still makes me nervous.

[rm.livejournal.com]

In my case, I'm increasingly finding value in my paper of referencing the character death panel at Gallifrey and another discussion I had with someone there (there's this thing people keep saying, and kept saying to me at the con: "I was at work and had to go to the bathroom to cry" re: Ianto's death that's so specific and interesting as a way of people saying "this is not like crying at other movies/tv shows"). Since I was part of the discussion, it seems batshit crazy not to say "i" and yet the contortions have begun.

[byzantienne.livejournal.com]

I think you have to say 'I' in that situation. To do otherwise is to betray the integrity of your evidence.

It is very strange, thinking of how different this kind of work is when (some of) your sources are alive. All of mine are safely dead.