Kate McKinney Maddalena’s essay “I Need You to Say ‘I’: Why First Person Is Important in College Writing” describes the importance of first person language in writing – when to use it, when not to use it, and how the use of it has changed overtime in scholarly work. Writing using first person can be tricky, especially when there are ways to overuse and underuse it. However, since writing is subjective and is based around the type of material being written, it should not be difficult to differentiate between where and when to use I. Maddalena suggests that personal stance essays explicitly tell you to use first person, as well as the fact that English papers in general should be more flexible with the use of first person. As long as the uses are appropriate and set up in a way that the reader will know a personal reflection is coming up, writers will know when it is time to say I. For example, this very essay describes many interesting points about the use of the first person, and I would like to reflect on these opinions further. This is clearly a very meta way to go about saying things, but letting the reader know a personal response or idea is coming up is a beneficial way to use first person. I agree that using the first person too much or too little could weaken the response, therefore separating the topic of discussion and the work being reflected is imperative in figuring out when to say I. I personally feel that using first person when needed can strengthen a paper and solidify the argument at hand.
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