I or we

Should you refer to yourself as "I" or "we" in a single-authored paper?  Well, it depends on who you are.

Queen Elizabeth: We are not amused.

If you're a royal, definitely use "we." 

What some readers start wondering when they see "we" in a paper with one author

• Who's "we": you and your advisor?

• Why don't you want to take responsibility for this?

 

 

What to avoid

An unfortunate outcome of a writer's unresolved I-WE battle is a sentence like this one:

It was found that an increase in X led to increases in Y.

It was found by....?  

In trying to dodge the "I/we" issue, we can fall into passive voice, and that is sure to either confuse our readers or lull them into a gentle slumber.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some workarounds if you're shy about "I" 

• This paper finds...

• The assumptions used in this paper...

• This paper shows that...

They're not pretty.  But at least the reader knows who did what.

Post by Varanya Chaubey