"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

[matthewwdaly.livejournal.com]

Alas, your poll does not include the option "... is never acceptable! *stomp* *stomp* *stomp*"

Instead, we used a combination of the passive voice and the plural. I've never given it thought before, so I will be charitable and say that it is not intended to be imperious but rather that if you are reading my paper then I am leading "us" through a maze of twisty little sub-arguments, all alike. However. I should point out that my training is in mathematics, so perhaps we had greater license to assume that our readers were amenable to being led like that since our writings were free of even mild opinions.