"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

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

So funny that you should bring this up! Yes, I do lose sleep over the question. I write a fairly academically rigorous monthly character biography for a Tolkien website (Silmarillion Writers Guild). I torture myself over this question every month, because I often make heretical controversial statements in these (heavily footnoted, of course!). I am often tempted to add something in the first person defending some of my arguments or claiming them as highly personal but well-supported. I do occasionally, but try to hold it to a minimum. It's a very geekish, sometimes pretentious fandom.