After reading Kate McKinney Maddalena’s essay, “I need you to say ‘I,’” I was inspired to reread and reflect on my previous essays written throughout my college journey to analyze how often I used first-person pronouns in these pieces—and the answer shocked me. There were absolutely none.
Not once in the hundreds of academic and professional papers that I have written just within the past two years have I mentioned the word “I,” which can be completely blamed on my junior-year high school honors English teacher for telling us that there is absolutely no reason to use personal pronouns in any academic paper, especially if that paper contained a thesis statement. I vividly remember him stating, “There is extreme significance in voicing your own thoughts and opinions without using the words ‘I’ or ‘me.’ Being able to communicate with your audience your stance on any given topic without outright stating it is a skill that not only makes your writing sound more scholarly and credible but also engages the audience to a different extent.” After hearing all of that, I considered my days of using “I’s” in my writing over since all I would ever want is for my writing to be taken seriously and sound as professional as possible. Until today, after learning that the word “I” may not be so bad after all.
According to Maddalena, including a first-person perspective in writing can help support the author and their piece’s objectivity, integrity, and rhetorical sophistication, give the audience clarification of who is thinking and saying what, and allow the author to take ownership, intellectual involvement, and exigency over their writing (pp. 181, 183, 184, 185). This new perspective that Maddalena offered me is one that I genuinely will not forget. Realizing that the word “I” isn’t always a bad thing in academic and professional writing will help me improve my writing abilities but also help me to create pieces that truly showcase those abilities and better connect to my audience.
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