Kate McKinney Maddalena’s I Need You to Say “I” is exactly what it says on the tin. It’s an argument the stresses the importance of first-person writing during one’s college years and beyond. She argues that the simple use of “I” in one’s work allows for ownership of one’s work, clarification of who’s saying what, and to allow room for potential error. Overall, she’s affirming that “I” is what makes a piece of writing human.
It seems obvious at first glance; “I” denotes that there is an author putting these words to paper. There are many ways to humanize words, but those require some familiarity with who the author is. “I” is a sign a imperfection, yet also of confidence. Just that one letter lets readers know that, “Yes, a person wrote this.” Personality is something we can never give up. AI can evolve as much as it wants to, but intimacy is a trait it will never truly learn.
Yet, before college, teachers tell students not to use it.
Using “I” is one of many arbitrary habits that teachers will usually attempt to scrub out of students. Take, for example, how they will also teach not to use “said”. It turns out that overuse of alternative dialogue verbs makes for weaker writing. In his memoir, On Writing, Stephen King dedicates a small section to two bad habits in writing. One is overuse of dialogue verbs, one is overuse of adverbs. In his humorous, down-to-earth way, he argues that it denotes lack of confidence from the author.
There are a myriad of flaws in how we teach kids to write. A big one is the false notion that one can teach writing in general. Yes, there are contexts in which using first-person would look unprofessional. However, it says a lot that Maddalena’s words are a total reversal of “common knowledge.” If college is spent unlearning habits learned from elementary to high school, there’s a problem. Maybe it’s a matter of wanting students to conform? Or perhaps it’s less philosophical than that. Maybe first-person writing leads to better text than people give it credit for.
Leave a Reply