As a young writer, I was taught to stay away from the use of the word “I”. Yet, Maddalena writes about all of the useful ways that “I” can be used in an essay. She also goes over when “I” should and should not be used. I was not taught any of this as a kid. However, when I think about it, maybe it was good idea to teach kids to write without using “I” in their writing. Maddalena mentions that it would be bad to over-use or under-use the word. I believe younger me would have used “I” to death. I feel like now I am able to carry the responsibility of properly using it in my writing. But, I wonder how hard it is to teach younger kids how to properly use “I.”
Thinking back, I want to say that the only times that I wrote in first person was a letter to my future self and my sociology class. Before college, I refrained from using “I” when it came to writing essays. Based on the years of learning to write without personal pronouns, I was kind of scared to use it; kind of like my writing would be wrong if I did. Which is kind of mind blowing because Maddalena talks about how “I” can improve anyone’s writing when placed correctly. I believe that kids should be taught how to use “I” correctly, so that they are not scared to use it when the time comes. I mean, at least high school level English should be teaching this stuff.
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