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Alexandra (AJ) Gold is a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature at Boston University. Follow her on Twitter @agold258 and check out her website.

I'm a bit of a curmudgeon. While I'm no Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm (all praise its return), I do have several pet peeves. I have little patience for people who take up a lot of room on public transportation. I am ill-inclined toward loud chewers. Don't get me started on people who assume my dog is public property just because we're outside (is this the ultimate "pet" peeve?). Within the academic realm, however, my general annoyances are few. Still, there is one common phrase I can't abide: "This paper will examine."

I know you've heard a version of this stolid formulation: "This paper will analyze"; "This article shows." No expression makes me bristle quite as much. I have to fight an immediate urge to shout: THIS PAPER DIDN'T ANALYZE ANYTHING! YOU DID. Why are we so afraid to say "I"?

Academic writing is no stranger to horrific, jargony prose. And the phrase is certainly just one among many stilted conventions of academic style. I have used it more than once, either out of habit or in an effort to appropriate an authority I don't always feel entitled to. Recently, however, I've begun to think more consciously not just about my own writing but about writing instruction. Tutoring in a writing center for two and a half years has meant reading dozens of assignment sheets and essays from different composition courses. What I've come to realize is that the "this paper will analyze" syndrome is symptomatic of the very traditional ways we teach critical writing at all levels, especially when it comes to the all-important "academic essay."
Why Don't We Let Our Students Say "I"?
Sometimes we do, but only conditionally. Many students that I've tutored have been told explicitly not to use the first-person pronoun or have been wary of its propriety. I know - or at least think - that those who ban their students from saying "I" have good intentions and believe they are helping students craft compelling thesis statements. Yet it seems a strange paradox of the traditional academic essay that as much as we tell students to write in their own words, we ask them to couch these words behind an inactive or tacit authorial subjectivity. More than that, when we tell students they can't say "I," we (perhaps unwittingly) reinforce the idea that speaking in the first person is a weak rhetorical strategy.

In the absence of "I," the traditional academic essay presumes a universal authority. It seems a relic of a historical (and often not so historical) academy when there was only one recognized authorial subject - white and male - and his role was to be a detached or objective critic. Whatever its origins, the assumption of a universal, detached, or objective author we implicitly or explicitly perpetuate through academic essays does a great disservice to the actual writing subjects in our classrooms.

From a theoretical standpoint, the standard academic essay reifies rationalist (and then masculinist) discourses that are no longer sustainable, particularly given the work feminist, queer, and other poststructural scholars have done to challenge our ingrained pedagogical, canonical, and social constructions. Knowledge, we have learned, is situated; so, too, is rhetorical power. Why strip students of their individual voice, agency, and embodied subjectivity? Why not allow students to acknowledge that their writing - their active participation in critical conversations - is always informed by their very real positions as subjects in the world?

Let's consider it from a practical standpoint, too. In courses that require writing, we are tasked with teaching students how to compose persuasive, intentional prose. We are tasked, in other words, with teaching them how to communicate effectively, and we hope that this extends beyond our immediate courses. However, the standard essay's presumption of an impersonal subject is incompatible with the modes of written (and oral) communication students engage in everyday, both in their personal lives, through texting and social media, and in their professional ones. I can't imagine that a student would write to a future employer: "This cover letter will analyze my educational background, skills, and potential." While this is certainly the work the document undertakes, it is not the language it employs. Purpose is not design.
Encouraging Student Ownership of Their Work
We should encourage our students to write in more personal, flexible ways. Such instruction could take many forms, starting by lifting the ban on "I." I would suggest an even more comprehensive approach: offer your students the chance to write or produce assignments in a genre beyond the traditional academic essay at least once during the semester. For TAs or those who have less control over the syllabus, consider a smaller-scale, in-class written genre assignment.

I assigned my own composition students an "alternative genre essay" in the form of a class blog. Other instructors in my writing program ask students to produce podcasts, graphic illustrations, nonfiction stories, and other creative work. All of these genre assignments place students in the position of active cultural producer more directly than do traditional academic essays.
Benefits of Student Ownership
While most of us already use multiple genres in our courses, we less frequently ask students to generate them. But those who study "genre-based pedagogies" (a common consideration among ESL scholars) can prompt us to consider why they are beneficial. As Ken Hyland notes: "genre pedagogies help [students] to distinguish differences and provide them with a means of conceptualizing their varied experiential frameworks. Highlighting variability thus helps undermine a deficit view which sees writing difficulties as learner weaknesses and which misrepresents writing as a universal, naturalized and non-contestable way of participating in communities."

While I could extol the virtues of the alternative genre assignment all day, here are some additional benefits I've discovered:

Alternative genre assignments, especially used alongside standard essays, invite students to investigate and negotiate their voice(s). Students wrote much stronger traditional essays after having a chance to explore their voice in another way.

They allow students to bring their own experiences, senses of self, and modes of language to bear on their writing, licensing more robust student agency while encouraging greater recognition of social and linguistic difference.

Asking all students to write in a new genre can be a great equalizer in classes that contain both native and non-native students, especially since the standard academic essay may be familiar to some students, educationally trained in America, but obscure to those from countries where academic discourse follows other conventions or even to first-generation college students.

They are memorable. Students get invested in and excited about their genre essays and the work often yields their most sophisticated thinking. At the end of the semester most students noted that the "blog" was their favorite (and often the most challenging!) essay to write.

Genre assignments are fun to read. This is a selfish point on behalf of instructors everywhere, but how many more stiff traditional academic essays can you bear? Do you really want to suffer through another totally abstract introduction?

If I've learned anything, it's how powerful it can be to see students actually write in their own words. They have so many remarkable things to say, but academic conventions can be stifling. Students are too easily (and regrettably) lead into verbal contortions that impede coherent meaning by writing like they think they are "supposed to" or attempting to conform to some nebulous "academic writing" ideal. While the alternative genre essay will not completely revolutionize the way students write, it is an invaluable means of transforming students' sense of what writing can do for them and what they can do in writing.
With that in mind, I implore you: let your students say "I." Have you ever assigned your students an alternative genre essay? What were the results?
[Image by Flickr user CollegeDegrees360 and used under Creative Commons licensing]

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Alexandra (AJ) Gold is a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature at Boston University. Follow her on Twitter @agold258 and check out her website. I'm a bit of a curmudgeon. While I'm no Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm (all praise its return), I do have several pet peeves.

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A reflective essay on the use of "I" in academic writing

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Seeing Academic Writing with a New "I" - National Writing Project

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While preparing to present an inservice program for teachers on the PSSA, the teacher-consultants and I were pleasantly surprised that a top-scoring eighth grade informative essay contained narrative elements, a strong connection to the author's experiences, and frequent but skillful use of the pronoun "I."

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When to use I in academic writing

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Many times, high school students are told not to use first person ("I," "we," "my," "us," and so forth) in their essays. As a college student, you should realize that this is a rule that can and should be broken-at the right time, of course.

By now, you've probably written a personal essay, memoir, or narrative that used first person. After all, how could you write a personal essay about yourself, for instance, without using the dreaded "I" word?

However, academic essays differ from personal essays; they are typically researched and use a formal tone. Because of these differences, when students write an academic essay, they quickly shy away from first person because of what they have been told in high school or because they believe that first person feels too informal for an intellectual, researched text. While first person can definitely be overused in academic essays (which is likely why your teachers tell you not to use it), there are moments in a paper when it is not only appropriate, but also more effective and/or persuasive to use first person. The following are a few instances in which it is appropriate to use first person in an academic essay:

Including a personal anecdote: You have more than likely been told that you need a strong "hook" to draw your readers in during an introduction. Sometimes, the best hook is a personal anecdote, or a short amusing story about yourself. In this situation, it would seem unnatural not to use first-person pronouns such as "I" and "myself." Your readers will appreciate the personal touch and will want to keep reading! (For more information about incorporating personal anecdotes into your writing, see "Employing Narrative in an Essay.")

Establishing your credibility (ethos): Ethos is a term stemming back to Ancient Greece that essentially means "character" in the sense of trustworthiness or credibility. A writer can establish her ethos by convincing the reader that she is trustworthy source. Oftentimes, the best way to do that is to get personal-tell the reader a little bit about yourself. (For more information about ethos, see "Ethos.")

For instance, let's say you are writing an essay arguing that dance is a sport. Using the occasional personal pronoun to let your audience know that you, in fact, are a classically trained dancer-and have the muscles and scars to prove it-goes a long way in establishing your credibility and proving your argument. And this use of first person will not distract or annoy your readers because it is purposeful.

Clarifying passive constructions: Often, when writers try to avoid using first person in essays, they end up creating confusing, passive sentences.

For instance, let's say I am writing an essay about different word processing technologies, and I want to make the point that I am using Microsoft Word to write this essay. If I tried to avoid first-person pronouns, my sentence might read: "Right now, this essay is being written in Microsoft Word." While this sentence is not wrong, it is what we call passive-the subject of the sentence is being acted upon because there is no one performing the action. To most people, this sentence sounds better: "Right now, I am writing this essay in Microsoft Word." Do you see the difference? In this case, using first person makes your writing clearer.

Stating your position in relation to others: Sometimes, especially in an argumentative essay, it is necessary to state your opinion on the topic. Readers want to know where you stand, and it is sometimes helpful to assert yourself by putting your own opinions into the essay. You can imagine the passive sentences (see above) that might occur if you try to state your argument without using the word "I." The key here is to use first person sparingly. Use personal pronouns enough to get your point across clearly without inundating your readers with this language.

Now, the above list is certainly not exhaustive. The best thing to do is to use your good judgment, and you can always check with your instructor if you are unsure of his or her perspective on the issue. Ultimately, if you feel that using first person has a purpose or will have a strategic effect on your audience, then it is probably fine to use first-person pronouns. Just be sure not to overuse this language, at the risk of sounding narcissistic, self-centered, or unaware of others' opinions on a topic.

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Using First Person in an Academic Essay: When is It Okay?

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Many times, high school students are told not to use first person ("I," "we," "my," "us," and so forth) in their essays. As a college student, you should realize that this is a rule that can and should be broken-at the right time, of course.

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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The Writing Center's explanation about using "I" in academic writing: it all depends.

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What this handout is about

This handout is about determining when to use first person pronouns ("I", "we," "me," "us," "my," and "our") and personal experience in academic writing. "First person" and "personal experience" might sound like two ways of saying the same thing, but first person and personal experience can work in very different ways in your writing. You might choose to use "I" but not make any reference to your individual experiences in a particular paper. Or you might include a brief description of an experience that could help illustrate a point you're making without ever using the word "I." So whether or not you should use first person and personal experience are really two separate questions, both of which this handout addresses. It also offers some alternatives if you decide that either "I" or personal experience isn't appropriate for your project. If you've decided that you do want to use one of them, this handout offers some ideas about how to do so effectively, because in many cases using one or the other might strengthen your writing.

Expectations about academic writing

Students often arrive at college with strict lists of writing rules in mind. Often these are rather strict lists of absolutes, including rules both stated and unstated:

Each essay should have exactly five paragraphs.

Don't begin a sentence with "and" or "because."

Never include personal opinion.

Never use "I" in essays.

We get these ideas primarily from teachers and other students. Often these ideas are derived from good advice but have been turned into unnecessarily strict rules in our minds. The problem is that overly strict rules about writing can prevent us, as writers, from being flexible enough to learn to adapt to the writing styles of different fields, ranging from the sciences to the humanities, and different kinds of writing projects, ranging from reviews to research.

So when it suits your purpose as a scholar, you will probably need to break some of the old rules, particularly the rules that prohibit first person pronouns and personal experience. Although there are certainly some instructors who think that these rules should be followed (so it is a good idea to ask directly), many instructors in all kinds of fields are finding reason to depart from these rules. Avoiding "I" can lead to awkwardness and vagueness, whereas using it in your writing can improve style and clarity. Using personal experience, when relevant, can add concreteness and even authority to writing that might otherwise be vague and impersonal.
Because college writing situations vary widely in terms of stylistic conventions, tone, audience, and purpose, the trick is deciphering the conventions of your writing context and determining how your purpose and audience affect the way you write. The rest of this handout is devoted to strategies for figuring out when to use "I" and personal experience.

Effective uses of "I":
In many cases, using the first person pronoun can improve your writing, by offering the following benefits:

Assertiveness: In some cases you might wish to emphasize agency (who is doing what), as for instance if you need to point out how valuable your particular project is to an academic discipline or to claim your unique perspective or argument.

Clarity: Because trying to avoid the first person can lead to awkward constructions and vagueness, using the first person can improve your writing style.

Positioning yourself in the essay: In some projects, you need to explain how your research or ideas build on or depart from the work of others, in which case you'll need to say "I," "we," "my," or "our"; if you wish to claim some kind of authority on the topic, first person may help you do so.

Deciding whether "I" will help your style

Here is an example of how using the first person can make the writing clearer and more assertive:

Original example:

In studying American popular culture of the 1980s, the question of to what degree materialism was a major characteristic of the cultural milieu was explored.

Better example using first person:

In our study of American popular culture of the 1980s, we explored the degree to which materialism characterized the cultural milieu.

The original example sounds less emphatic and direct than the revised version; using "I" allows the writers to avoid the convoluted construction of the original and clarifies who did what.

Here is an example in which alternatives to the first person would be more appropriate:

Original example:

As I observed the communication styles of first-year Carolina women, I noticed frequent use of non-verbal cues.

Better example:

A study of the communication styles of first-year Carolina women revealed frequent use of non-verbal cues.

In the original example, using the first person grounds the experience heavily in the writer's subjective, individual perspective, but the writer's purpose is to describe a phenomenon that is in fact objective or independent of that perspective. Avoiding the first person here creates the desired impression of an observed phenomenon that could be reproduced and also creates a stronger, clearer statement.

Here's another example in which an alternative to first person works better:

Original example:

As I was reading this study of medieval village life, I noticed that social class tended to be clearly defined.

Better example:

This study of medieval village life reveals that social class tended to be clearly defined.

Although you may run across instructors who find the casual style of the original example refreshing, they are probably rare. The revised version sounds more academic and renders the statement more assertive and direct.

Here's a final example:

Original example:

I think that Aristotle's ethical arguments are logical and readily applicable to contemporary cases, or at least it seems that way to me.

Better example

Aristotle's ethical arguments are logical and readily applicable to contemporary cases.

In this example, there is no real need to announce that that statement about Aristotle is your thought; this is your paper, so readers will assume that the ideas in it are yours.

Determining whether to use "I" according to the conventions of the academic field

Which fields allow "I"?

The rules for this are changing, so it's always best to ask your instructor if you're not sure about using first person. But here are some general guidelines.

Sciences: In the past, scientific writers avoided the use of "I" because scientists often view the first person as interfering with the impression of objectivity and impersonality they are seeking to create. But conventions seem to be changing in some cases-for instance, when a scientific writer is describing a project she is working on or positioning that project within the existing research on the topic. Check with your science instructor to find out whether it's o.k. to use "I" in his/her class.

Social Sciences: Some social scientists try to avoid "I" for the same reasons that other scientists do. But first person is becoming more commonly accepted, especially when the writer is describing his/her project or perspective.

Humanities: Ask your instructor whether you should use "I." The purpose of writing in the humanities is generally to offer your own analysis of language, ideas, or a work of art. Writers in these fields tend to value assertiveness and to emphasize agency (who's doing what), so the first person is often-but not always-appropriate. Sometimes writers use the first person in a less effective way, preceding an assertion with "I think," "I feel," or "I believe" as if such a phrase could replace a real defense of an argument. While your audience is generally interested in your perspective in the humanities fields, readers do expect you to fully argue, support, and illustrate your assertions. Personal belief or opinion is generally not sufficient in itself; you will need evidence of some kind to convince your reader.

Other writing situations: If you're writing a speech, use of the first and even the second person ("you") is generally encouraged because these personal pronouns can create a desirable sense of connection between speaker and listener and can contribute to the sense that the speaker is sincere and involved in the issue. If you're writing a resume, though, avoid the first person; describe your experience, education, and skills without using a personal pronoun (for example, under "Experience" you might write "Volunteered as a peer counselor").
A note on the second person "you":
In situations where your intention is to sound conversational and friendly because it suits your purpose, as it does in this handout intended to offer helpful advice, or in a letter or speech, "you" might help to create just the sense of familiarity you're after. But in most academic writing situations, "you" sounds overly conversational, as for instance in a claim like "when you read the poem 'The Wasteland,' you feel a sense of emptiness." In this case, the "you" sounds overly conversational. The statement would read better as "The poem 'The Wasteland' creates a sense of emptiness." Academic writers almost always use alternatives to the second person pronoun, such as "one," "the reader," or "people."

Personal experience in academic writing

The question of whether personal experience has a place in academic writing depends on context and purpose. In papers that seek to analyze an objective principle or data as in science papers, or in papers for a field that explicitly tries to minimize the effect of the researcher's presence such as anthropology, personal experience would probably distract from your purpose. But sometimes you might need to explicitly situate your position as researcher in relation to your subject of study. Or if your purpose is to present your individual response to a work of art, to offer examples of how an idea or theory might apply to life, or to use experience as evidence or a demonstration of an abstract principle, personal experience might have a legitimate role to play in your academic writing. Using personal experience effectively usually means keeping it in the service of your argument, as opposed to letting it become an end in itself or take over the paper.

It's also usually best to keep your real or hypothetical stories brief, but they can strengthen arguments in need of concrete illustrations or even just a little more vitality.
Here are some examples of effective ways to incorporate personal experience in academic writing:

Anecdotes: In some cases, brief examples of experiences you've had or witnessed may serve as useful illustrations of a point you're arguing or a theory you're evaluating. For instance, in philosophical arguments, writers often use a real or hypothetical situation to illustrate abstract ideas and principles.

References to your own experience can explain your interest in an issue or even help to establish your authority on a topic.

Some specific writing situations, such as application essays, explicitly call for discussion of personal experience.

Here are some suggestions about including personal experience in writing for specific fields:
Philosophy: In philosophical writing, your purpose is generally to reconstruct or evaluate an existing argument, and/or to generate your own. Sometimes, doing this effectively may involve offering a hypothetical example or an illustration. In these cases, you might find that inventing or recounting a scenario that you've experienced or witnessed could help demonstrate your point. Personal experience can play a very useful role in your philosophy papers, as long as you always explain to the reader how the experience is related to your argument. (See our handout on writing in philosophy for more information.)

Religion: Religion courses might seem like a place where personal experience would be welcomed. But most religion courses take a cultural, historical, or textual approach, and these generally require objectivity and impersonality. So although you probably have very strong beliefs or powerful experiences in this area that might motivate your interest in the field, they shouldn't supplant scholarly analysis. But ask your instructor, as it is possible that he or she is interested in your personal experiences with religion, especially in less formal assignments such as response papers. (See our handout on writing in religious studies for more information.)

Literature, Music, Fine Arts, and Film: Writing projects in these fields can sometimes benefit from the inclusion of personal experience, as long as it isn't tangential. For instance, your annoyance over your roommate's habits might not add much to an analysis of "Citizen Kane." However, if you're writing about Ridley Scott's treatment of relationships between women in the movie "Thelma and Louise," some reference your own observations about these relationships might be relevant if it adds to your analysis of the film. Personal experience can be especially appropriate in a response paper, or in any kind of assignment that asks about your experience of the work as a reader or viewer. Some film and literature scholars are interested in how a film or literary text is received by different audiences, so a discussion of how a particular viewer or reader experiences or identifies with the piece would probably be appropriate. (See our handouts on writing about fiction, art history, and drama for more information.)

Women's Studies: Women's Studies classes tend to be taught from a feminist perspective, a perspective which is generally interested in the ways in which individuals experience gender roles. So personal experience can often serve as evidence for your analytical and argumentative papers in this field. This field is also one in which you might be asked to keep a journal, a kind of writing that requires you to apply theoretical concepts to your experiences.

History: If you're analyzing a historical period or issue, personal experience is less likely to advance your purpose of objectivity. However, some kinds of historical scholarship do involve the exploration of personal histories. So although you might not be referencing your own experience, you might very well be discussing other people's experiences as illustrations of their historical contexts. (See our handout on writing in history for more information.)

Sciences: Because the primary purpose is to study data and fixed principles in an objective way, personal experience is less likely to have a place in this kind of writing. Often, as in a lab report, your goal is to describe observations in such a way that a reader could duplicate the experiment, so the less extra information, the better. Of course, if you're working in the social sciences, case studies-accounts of the personal experiences of other people-are a crucial part of your scholarship. (See our handout on writing in the sciences for more information.)

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You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout (just click print) and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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What this handout is about This handout is about determining when to use first person pronouns ("I", "we," "me," "us," "my," and "our") and personal experience in academic writing. "First person" and "personal experience" might sound like two ways of ... Continued