I agree with Gunnar: it depends on the writer's intent. If I'm reporting
scientific information, I'll tend to avoid I/we. If I'm philosophizing or
making an argument or writing an 'essay', then I don't hesitate to use I/we.
Still I tell my students to avoid I/we. This is because though they're used
to using I/we, they have little practise/experience using 3rd person. Yet the
latter is an expected skill, esp. for engineers. That way, they can learn
both styles and can (hopefully wisely) choose between them when they're out in
the real world. Indeed, I tell my senior undergrads and graduate students
exactly this.
Cheers.
Fil
Swanson, Gunnar wrote:
> Dartmouth tells us that "[o]verusing the 'I' might make the reader feel that the paper was overly subjective" but I suspect that the reason many people avoid the first person singular is to sound overly objective. It seems to me that the most important thing for academic writing to be is honest and accurate. Also, as Jonas pointed out, taking responsibility is vital; third person writing can be a dodge.
>
> A clumsy choice of voice situation to deal with is the separate facts of multiple authors: "We believe that being accurate and specific is important but when I (Gunnar) tried to mention a personal experience in the middle of our first person plural writing, the solidity of 'we' began to crumble."
>
> Some of telling students not to use "I" may be an attempt to enforce a bit of formality: In our TMZ world, many students tend to refer to strangers by first name. (I don't think it's an egalitarian statement paralleling Teena's feminist form.)
>
> Gunnar
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--
Prof. Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Ryerson University Tel: 416/979-5000 x7749
350 Victoria St. Fax: 416/979-5265
Toronto, ON email: [log in to unmask]
M5B 2K3 Canada http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/
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