Subjectivity and objectivity

In writing, how you refer to yourself (or yourselves if more than one author) depends on the convention in your subject and how visible you personally wish to be in your text. Some subjects and publications prefer the author(s) to be present in the text by using more direct forms, while others prefer a more impersonal style. The alternatives vary in how directly they point to you as the author, with I the most direct and passive phrases such as It may be argued not actively referring to the author at all.

For individual authors in particular, how you refer to yourself is a conflict between modesty, meaning avoiding calling attention to yourself as author, a desire to be and be seen to be objective, which means avoiding the subjective pronoun I, and the importance of clearly identifying the author of a written text. For co-authored texts, the plural pronoun we already includes a certain degree of modesty as it refers to a group rather than an individual.

It is important to note, however, that although by convention I is avoided in writing in many subjects, this in itself does not make a text more objective. A further point is that printed work, though written by someone, is produced by machine and thus given the appearance of impersonality: the permanence and status of the written word and in particular of print adds credence to a text.

A number of ways of referring to yourself are given below, from the most to the least direct. Further examples can be found in the phrases section of the PhraseBook.

I

I would like to thank my supervisor, X, who encouraged me to …
I do not wish to imply that …
So far, I have not commented on …
My own view is that …

 

we

In some subjects, using we to refer to a single author could be regarded as old-fashioned. However, some writers use we to include the reader in the discussion – this is particularly the case in textbooks.

Using we in a paper with more than one author is neutral. As in many subjects co-authored papers are the norm, using we for a single author here could be misleading.

We can say that …
What we are mainly concerned with here is …
This brings us to the question of …
What does this tell us about …?
Our view is that …

 

one

One could argue that …
This becomes clear when one examines …
The limitations of … become evident if one considers …
Reading X, one is reminded of …

 

the author(s)

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of …
The view of the author is that …

 

Note: when writing about other authors’ work, do not refer to yourself as the author(s), which could be confused with the author you are reviewing, as illustrated by the example above.

Sometimes, you may wish to refer specifically to one of the authors of a co-written work. In such case, you can use the author’s initials:

The interviews were conducted by one of the authors (SH).

 

Impersonal phrases

It is clear that …
It is interesting that …
This study argues …
This paper will show …
One possible explanation is that …

 

Note: when stating an opinion, do not use impersonal forms such as It is believed, It is considered or It is assumed, as it is important to make clear whose opinion you are giving. Instead, write for example:

Many authors believe …
Our view is that …
Many researchers hold the view that …
X assumes that …

 

Passive phrases

This can be explained by …
It has been shown in this chapter how …
The paper has been substantially revised.