Hello Anne,
This is an interesting topic and I regularly get this asked in my
seminars as well. I don't think there is right or wrong here.
I usually answer by explaining, that the two positions (passive voice
vs. we/I) reflect two ways to look at science. One is the idealistic,
theoretical view that science is a purely logical, intellectual
endeavour, where all insights should be independent of the
experimentator and/or observer. Hence, everything personal should be
left out (-> passive voice). The other view is, that science is a deeply
human endeavour and therefore necessarily requires and reflects
individual human properties such as creativity and interpretation (and
also fallibilities). Therefore personal pronouns and active voice should
be used.
I then encourage the students to contemplate which parts of their work
tend more towards the first and which towards the second view and find a
balance in their writing (e.g. experimental protocol -> passive voice,
hypothesis development ->active voice). I also ask them to consider the
place where their work will be published (is it an oral presentation, a
thesis, is there a style guide for the journal?).
I could imagine that the approach to that question varies somewhat
between disciplines. I teach mostly in the field of Biomedicine. Can
anyone from other disciplines confirm that?
I also observe that inexperienced students tend to prefer passive voice,
perhaps to take themselves out of the line of fire, whereas more
experienced scientists seem to feel more comfortable using active voice.
Best wishes,
Christian Brösamle
Am 21.09.15 um 15:05 schrieb Anne Wegner:
> 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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