The first person
I find the first person oddly intrusive in academic writing. I want the author to tell me what they know about a topic without resorting to phrases such as ‘I am trying to suggest that all clouds are fluffy’ or ‘I concur with Whitney Houston that the greatest love of all is learning to love oneself’. Just tell the reader that all clouds are fluffy or the greatest love of all is learning to love oneself. Authors shouldn’t insert themselves into a narrative where they don’t belong. There are exceptions, of course – like this blogpost. I’m using the first person here because I’m telling you about my own stylistic preferences. In this case, I am the narrative. Some academic writers think that the first person adds personality to their work. It doesn’t. The first person often drains your prose of colour because it fails to let the nouns and verbs speak for themselves. It’s like a voice-over on a nature documentary; sometimes informative, occasionally distracting, but ultimately unnecessar...