Hi Anne and EWTAW contributors
A stimulating debate. I have eventually managed to read through all the emails and skim through most of the articles but as academic writing is just a part of my role as an Academic Skills Tutor in a post '92 institution I thought that I might add a wider dimension to this debate. My first contribution to the association!
As you are talking about doctoral students and researchers preparing to publish this is fine but at UG level surely it is essential to teach the passive voice? UG students are being taught to challenge expert opinion and develop criticality, they are not generally developing new knowledge. When UG students are allowed to use the active voice their writing tends to become overly descriptive, wordy and opinionated lacking academic rigour. Some UG students are unable to assess context and are insecure in their writing ability and style. Hence the need for writing centres.
In many journals authors don't refer to themselves as 'I' but as: the author / writer / researcher. This is copied by UG students who then sound pompous and contradict the expectation that academic writing to be both 'precise and concise'. The use of the passive voice just requires sentence juggling which UG students are frequently unfamiliar with and can be addressed at the proof reading stage of an assignment. Surely developing the use of the passive voice is an essential skill and, dare I say it, one that some authors haven't mastered.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts about this.
Thanks
Jane
Jane Ball MA, BA(Hons), NPQH, PGCHPE, PGCert, TESOL, SFHEA, TeF
Academic Skills Tutor (Study Skills)
Information Service
Staffordshire University
-----Original Message-----
From: European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing - discussions [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anne Wegner
Sent: 23 September 2015 08:52
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Summary: Use of we/I in academic texts
Dear Colleagues,
Two days after I set this ball rolling, I have produced the promised summary of the answers so far received. I have tried to put some order into the huge number of contributions to the debate and attached the resulting file. I admit to the order being one that most suits me and to using a lot of copy and paste, but perhaps some of you will find it useful.
The file has been attached in two versions, both identical from their content. I personally consider that the contents are creative commons texts and can be used freely (which is why I have produced a .docx file). If anyone disagrees with this, they should let the listserv know. If anyone needs the file as an open source (.odt), then let me know.
Many, many thanks for all your contributions. I have really enjoyed the discussion, and it has certainly provided much food for thought for future workshops on the topic.
Kind regards
Anne
Zitat von Anne Wegner <[log in to unmask]>:
> Dear colleagues
> Two questions for you. I teach academic writing, mainly to PhD
> students from difference scientific areas at various German
> universities. One of the things I teach is that it is generally ok to
> use “we/I” in academic texts, while pointing out that its use does
> slightly depend on the area in which one is working or the journal for
> which one is writing. However, my daughter said that during her recent
> Bachelor studies (Durham University, political sciences), she was
> mainly writing, and being expected to write, in the passive voice,
> avoiding we/I. I have two main questions related to this:
>
> 1)Am I the only one getting my workshop participants to use we/I in
> an English academic text? If so, I'd better stop!
> 2)What do academic texts in other European languages generally
> contain - we/I or passive voice? In a German academic text, the use
> of we/I is generally frowned upon.
>
> I would appreciate any comments and am happy to put together a summary
> of any answers I receive.
>
> Many thanks
> Anne Wegner
>
> [log in to unmask]
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