The First Person
I could write impersonally: A theory is presented …
Or I could write personally: I/we present a theory …
Which style informs you better?
Suzette Haden Elgin suggests that the safest mode of speech is “computer mode” —speaking without I, you, or opinions. Thus, Elgin reports, computer mode is preferred in science writing. And indeed, the American Medical Association Manual of Style, 10th edition, page 320, prefers not “we did X” but “the author(s) did X.”
But some journals, such as Health Care for Women International, explicitly require first person pronouns (I or we) and active voice verbs. Further, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, even encourages the use of I and we (page 77).
For scientific writing, which “voice” below would you choose?
Active voice with personal pronoun: I studied or We studied.
Active voice with third-person: The author studied.
Or passive voice (no personal pronouns): X was studied.
Or action in a noun (no pronouns): A study was undertaken.
On the question of personal pronouns in science or business, here are the views of several sources:
Harwood N. (2005). ‘We do not seem to have a theory … the theory I present here attempts to fill this gap’: Inclusive and exclusive pronouns in academic writing. Applied Linguistics 26, 343-375.
In business, physics, economics, and computer science, Harwood finds I, we, and us used, but with very different effects. There is a spectrum from the risky I as originator to the consensus-building we/us that actually effaces the writer. (Incidentally, Harwood uses “I” liberally.) He concludes that acceptance of these first persons varies with the “corpus” or discipline.
Kuo, C-H. (1999). The use of personal pronouns: Role relationships in scientific journal articles. English for Specific Purposes 18, 121-138. In science, Kuo found we is far more common than I, and, used either inclusively or exclusively, we strategically positions a writer’s statement.
Netzel, R., Perez-Iratxeta, C., Bork, P., & Andrade, M.A. (2003). The way we write: Country-specific variations of the English language in the biomedical literature. European Molecular Biology Organization [EMBO] 4, 446-451. In biomedical literature, compared to English written elsewhere, US English has a high proportion of I/we personal pronouns and low proportion of passive verbs. In the same corpus, US English is high in both sentence length and proportion of verbs per sentence.
