Following on from an in-class discussion in a dissertation-writing course I'm taking for my Ph.D. in education, I thought I'd see what others around the academic planet think about first-person pronouns in academic writing.
Modern style manuals say it's acceptable to use first-person pronouns, and there are no specific limitations expressed as to how many times one can write "I" or "me" or "my." At what point, however, does a dissertation or thesis takes on the personality of an essay, rather than a scholarly analysis and explication.
Is there a difference based on subject matter (e.g., STEM versus humanities)? Is there a difference based on level of degree (e.g., Master's versus terminal)? Is this acceptance being taught at the undergraduate level?
Caveat: I'm a nontraditional student -- 15 years since my Master's -- with a lot of writing credits. My professional experience is creating technical material and specialized industry reports, making me abhor personal pronouns in formal, academic documents.
Here is a very good text about the usage of the first person in scientific texts: https://oxfordediting.com/to-we-or-not-to-we-the-first-person-in-academic-writing/
Dear Billie R McNamara
You should not write from a first-person perspective at all, as at some point, this will cause you problems, potentially at your thesis defense if your committee and supervisor overlook this.
Best Regards
Dr. Fatemeh Khozaei
The APA 7th edition frowned against 1st person pronouns of "I, me, you, his, her, she" in academic research projects, thesis and dissertation. It was stated that the following should be used instead: "they, them" or preferably " the researcher ".
Best regards
In my initial literature search, I found articles that debate the use of first-person pronouns primarily to display of authority and a construct toward enhancing inclusivity.
This article interestingly employs first-person pronouns, presents quantitative data as well as links to prior empirical studies. The full-text version is available here at ResearchGate (link below).
K. Hyland and F. (Kevin) Jiang (2017) -- Is academic writing becoming more informal? doi: 10.1016/j.esp.2016.09.001Article Is academic writing becoming more informal?
Apparently, Hyland has written prolifically on this and related topics.
Pronouns are words that stand in for nouns.They can refer to specific people and things e.g I ,you ,It ,him ,their ,this or to non_specfic peoples and things e.g.any body ,one ,some ,each.In academic writings,First_person (i ,we ) may be used depending on your field.Second person pronouns (you ,yours) should almost always be avoided.Third person pronouns (he ,she ,they ,)should be used in a way during writing.
For more detailed see the attached ref:
https://www.scribbr.com.>pronouns
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