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Michael Piotrowski

Some years ago, I decided to simply use “I” in scholarly articles when I refer to myself. What’s the point of using “this article,” “the author,” and similar contortions instead?

I now received a review that *strongly* suggests I write “this article proposes” instead of “I propose.” But I still fail to see how this would make the article better ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#AcademicChatter

6 comments
screwlisp

@mxp yeah, I am on the I side of this fence too.We have that hilarious letter from Einstein about gravitational lensing after all.

screwlisp

@mxp Alternatejoke:
But this article still fails to see how this would make the article better ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

JackieM

@mxp I HATE conventions of academic writing that do not make your meaning any clearer. As if reading academic writing weren’t hard enough. It always just felt like gate keeping to me.

Paul (Tex) Hewson

@mxp In math papers we use "we" a lot. I think the idea is that "we" means the reader and writer together. That's freaked out a few non-math co-authors, even when it was the journal style.

Michael Piotrowski

@texhewson I guess the “pedagogical we” makes sense for proofs and the like, but may sound strange in other contexts…

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