"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

[griffen.livejournal.com]

The alternative to the use of "I" or "we" in academic and scholarly writing is the extensive use of the passive voice. I'll take first-person (singular or plural) over the passive voice any day - and the use of "one" is both dated and pretentious, IMNSHO.