Good afternoon, sir. Is it possible to write a thesis in the first person? I would like to know if the APA guidelines allow it, as sometimes I have read some theses in English written in the first person and other theses (in Spanish) written in the third person.
Thank you very much in advance for your kind attention!
I think it depends on the field you will be writing in. In general, theses and articles in the life sciences use the first person but not so much in social sciences.
As far as I know there is no rule issued by the APA guidelines against using first person pronouns. A quick google search seems to confirm this.
Just like Mahmoud Ahmed says, it is best to conform to the conventions of your branch of science. What do others authors in your field do? If you are not sure, I suggest you discuss this issue with your thesis supervisor.
Personally I am in favour of freely using first person pronouns. Using passives everywhere or referring to yourself as “the author” is rather clumsy in my view. I do not consider it formal or “more objective”. Science is done by scientists, and scientists are people. Even the most reliable theory started out as a tentative hypothesis, as an expectation. Much of science is a personal opinion, albeit one that can hopefully be supported with results.
In my BA thesis in linguistics I used first person pronouns when it seemed natural. I used it when explaining how I conducted an experiment with participants and how I developed my methodology, for example.
I personally feel that third person feels more like an objective report on research, but the most important thing is to remain consistent and not keep switching among first, second, and third person pronouns.
Since a thesis is a written source documenting and reporting a scholarly assignment , it is better to use the third person voice of reporting. Self referencing should be used with absolute care and minimally in academic studies. After all, this is what APA style advocates.
It depends on the field. My dissertation was ethnographic and, therefore, warranted first person use. APA allows it.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Linguistics
- Composition Studies
- Writing