Check out my previous article on literacy and discourse!
Kate McKinney Maddalena’s essay “I Need You to Say “I”: Why First Person Is Important in College Writing” highlights the importance of using first person in academic writing. Broadly, it can be summed up that using “I” helps dissuade ambiguity, gives credibility and context to the writer, and encourages new critical standpoints to emerge that probably wouldn’t have been welcomed otherwise.
I enthusiastically agree with Maddalena; using “I” in more formal-types of writing allows for the flexibility mentioned above, and I’d even go farther and say it’s just plain fun to add your own perspective into the paper. I don’t mean just simply interjecting a heavy analysis with your opinion or saying “this is right because I said so,” but allowing yourself to write your own voice into the analysis and making yourself an active “character” adds spice to the writing that being passive wouldn’t have allowed, as Maddalena touches upon.
To be honest, I have been using “I” in formal writing, but not to the extent that Maddalena encourages. I reserved first person pronouns for the conclusion, because, to grossly simplify, the conclusion is a free for all. Not only do you wrap up the paper by summarizing the main points, you should also discuss the further implications of the main subject, or how it affects you or others, etc. It’s the one place I allow myself to be an active voice, but I think the essay was the push I needed to use “I” more often, formal writing rules be damned!
Leave a Reply