"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

[go-gentle.livejournal.com]

I was a math major in college, and from my reading and writing for math classes I picked up such phrases as "We now consider the case where....", which seemed to be the standard style in that field. (Even when the author is only one person - I always assumed the 'we' included the author and the reader.) I try not to let in drift into my writing for other classes, but sometimes it just seems the most natural now, especially when I'm writing an extremely logical paper. (Not that I try to write illogical papers, it's just that some are structured like a proof and some are not.)

[goseaward.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if someone else would point out the use of "we" instead of "I"! :D I don't think I've seen a paper published since 2000 at least that used passive voice; everyone goes first person plural. (I'm an astronomer.)