(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

Hi folks! Question: how do we feel about the use of "I" in humanities papers? Someone (not a prof) has just read an essay for me and edited out every use of the first person. I understand that this is a valid response, but I personally find it frustrating. I think the passive voice is awkward, takes the life out of a text, and furthermore find it a dishonest attempt to obscure the context of the piece and its origin*; I find structures like "The rest of this essay will explore A, B, and C" idiotic. I have read plenty of articles that use "I" in the same way I do. Is this one of those "Do as I say not as I do until you have a PhD and tenure" things? I know it can be used badly, and sometimes I do (and then try to catch it on an editing pass), but I don't think every use of it ever is bad.

*This, if you were wondering, is What Is Wrong With Science Today.

Comments

[jo-nzl.livejournal.com]

I'm essentially in agreement with you here, especially about obscuring the origin of a piece. There is an author behind our essays, we all know this; trying to hide that fact seems to me a little silly. To me a lot of this ties into my general literary-critical leaning; I have a large soft spot for pomo, feminist stuff. It becomes an ideological issue at a certain point.

Of course, those who are marking your essays will all have their own opinions on the issue. Some of them will be vehemently against it, mostly because a lot of students really don't do it right (I have read a lot of undergrad writing making banal "I feel that..." or "I think that..." comments). But at a postgraduate level, as a signposting of argument, based on a lot of scholarly reading which has shown you how it is done, I don't see how a marker could really object to it.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yep, I think we totally agree. I guess I'll find out if he has a problem, because it's in now and I didn't change it. :P

[aimeesworld.livejournal.com]

I used 'I' in my research essay and my supervisor didn't seem to mind? At least he didn't call me on it and it is all handed in now?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

OR MAYBE HE DID MIND and you'll find that out later!!!

JUST JOKING. Yeah, I have some in my research essay too that Anna hasn't picked up on. I wouldn't worry about it except I have to write two essays for this guy this week, and obviously I don't expect him to mark the first before I give him the second which means I don't have the testing effect - e.g. finding out with the first one what he wants for the second one.

[roselet.livejournal.com]

I think it depends on the marker. Some really hate it and others don't mind. Personally I think it's silly to ignore the origin of the paper, as you said, so maybe email the professor and ask?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, imma go in and talk to him today to see how he feels about it. I know a couple of my others don't mind it, but people are so unpredictable...

[ilyena_sylph]

It really depends on your professor and the style of the essay, if it's acceptable or not.

Yeah, I know, that's no help.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'd come to that conclusion anyway, so no worries. :P

[ariastar.livejournal.com]

Most of my professors have announced sternly that they won't put up with any passive voice shenanigans and that they know you're the one writing the essay, so 'I' away! Obviously my professors are not yours, but I have been taught that in humanities papers passive voice is a far bigger sin than using the first person.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with your profs. There are active-voice ways to avoid the first person - "This essay will explore", for e.g. - but they tend to take more words, and since I already tend to the verbose I hate that.

[jennielf.livejournal.com]

hmmm. now that I think about it maybe thats (one of the reasons) why my papers always sucked in college...I was voraciously taught in High school that the "I" was just not done. and I always had a hard time writing my papers with a passive voice that made sense, especially when it was something I was really passionate about...

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's just a stylistic thing for me, I guess.

[owlfish]

I'm all in favor of first-person pronouns in academic work. It's possible to overuse them (i.e. imply it's all my opinion, not commonly consensus), but generally, if it's a personal opinion, observation, or experience it's disingenuous not to be allowed to claim it as such.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Good to know! There's been a chorus of agreement with this here and elsewhere I've asked, so I feel pretty comfortable with my own opinion on the matter now and will adapt it only where I absolutely must.

[blythely.livejournal.com]

IME the life sciences and social sciences journals are really moving towards first person active voice (I and we) and even the biggies like Nature are okay with it (they basically make you write in your abstract "Here I/we show X "). I wrote my (bio anth) thesis in the first person and always submit papers written as I/we did/think. There's some interesting links and discussions here: http://blogs.nature.com/nautilus/categories/author_services/writing/

I think it's a dying-out formality / prescriptivist grammar trend in some ways, though I note the physical sciences / engineering still tend to encourage it (though again, not all). It wouldn't surprise me if there was holdout in some types of humanities subjects, because passive/third person constructions encourage you to be unnecessarily complex and no-one can criticise your ideas if they can't understand them ;) (couldn't resist, sorry). I'd take it as an opportunity to have a discussion with your prof TBH; it's a bit odd, it's not like you're doing mass spectrometry and wanting to pretend you're all ~objective~

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, other people have mentioned this - sociology and social work apparently have been very into first person for a long time and psych appears to be a holdout, which all seems unsurprising... Anyway, I think my department is fairly modern, though I will meet up with my prof and check it just in case.

no-one can criticise your ideas if they can't understand them ;)

So what you're saying is, I should cultivate the passive voice?! Heh.

That link's terrifically interesting, thanks! (Procrastination, here I come...)

[amarynth.livejournal.com]

I'm not opposed to it from a grammatic view and I agree it's sometimes necessary to avoid the passive voice or overly verbose forms, so the context in which you're using it is probably OK.

However I have been known to give students advice that's parallel to what your editor did, because some of them really do have a problem with not just stating their own opinion unfounded, and telling them to go through what they've written and remove all the 'I' and 'me' words is a good way to get that message home (if perhaps slightly over the top).

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

Right. But I don't think I've done that in this case - or at least I think some of the notes were correct and I changed it accordingly, and I think some of them are still fine. It's not a problem with the first person, it's just a problem with bad writing - I'm not a perfect writer, of course.

[chattycheese.livejournal.com]

I'll play devil's advocate and say I hate it. It bothers me, and I know it's just personal preference but I've read so many bad essays that use extensive first person and don't back up their statements and are obviously just making something up that I just can't stand it.

Of course, this may be because I do all my writing in chemistry, and they don't like first person in the very slightest.

However, I avoid it in ALL my writing, even for humanities classes and don't seem to have a problem. I too hate the "This essay will talk about X, Y, and Z" construct, I try to end my introduction with one or two declamatory statements that touch on every point in order nice and pretty.

Still, though. First person and I are not friends in formal writing. I've seen it in lots of biology papers of late (let's not discuss how much I hate that part of research), but I find myself judging them a little bit- even if the paper came from Science.

[aleph-naught.livejournal.com]

It really depends on the usage. I can't see any problem with statements like "I will show that *blah*". But "It is my belief that" or "I think that" would definitely have me shaking my head unless they've backed these statements up with evidence, in which case the original statement is somewhat redundant anyway since the author's opinion is inconsequential in and of itself.

[roadtomanderlay.livejournal.com]

In History, we're told that using "I" is punishable by death.

Well, not exactly, but it is frowned upon. Maybe it differs within disciplines as well?