JMNorris wrote:
I once had a student in a college course ask me if he was permited to
use the first person in a term paper.  Ugh.  I heard a rumor that the
Education  Dept. at my school would automatically give an F for the use
of "I".  Education Departments are generally the academically weakest in
any university.  "I" is better than the royal "we", and "the author" is
downright stilted.  Note that the royal "we" is still first person, just
not singular.


I think that, in most cases, the author is using "we" to mean "you and I", i.e. the author and the reader. I like that -- it makes me feel like the author is saying "come on, walk with me while I explain this".

I would most definitely cringe if I ever read a research paper in my own field, theoretical physics, that was written in first person singular.

    Author: "After performing the above transformation, I can now write
             the Lagrangian density as ..."
        Me: "Hey, wait a minute! YOU write the Lagrangian like that?
             What about me, can't I do that too? Are we talking
             mathematics here, or are we discussing your personal
             preference in Lagrangians?"

For experimental papers I'd find it more acceptable, as they to a larger extent describe the author's personal experience, which is not necessarily reproducible by others. On the other hand, papers in experimental sciences tend to have dozens of authors and co-authors anyway, so the plural "we" is still the appropriate thing to use. ^^

For educational books like Andrei's I like the first person singular style, as long as it's not overused.

-Lars

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