It’s Time to End Persecution of First-Person Writing

By Dr. Gary L Deel, Ph.D., J.D.

Aversion to first-person writing is extremely commonplace in the halls of research and academia. But why are the most educated and intellectually astute among us so opposed to the word “I”?

The origins of these viewpoints are usually traceable to college coursework. Writing assignments that require students to write in third-person are virtually ubiquitous across disciplines and degree levels. Professors everywhere demand that their students eschew the word “I” entirely.

These prohibitions are so standard and absolute that it would be logical to assume they are probably codified in writing style guides. For example, most of my academic and research work has been focused in the social sciences, which generally subscribe to the American Psychological Association (APA) format as a writing style authority. And after 10 college degrees and 17 or so years of taking classes that disavow first-person writing, I was sure this policy had to have origins in the APA writing style manual itself.

So imagine my surprise when I discovered this was not at all the case. I recently investigated the matter, and I was shocked to learn that, not only does APA not proscribe the use of first-person, it is actually encouraged over the use of more awkward phrasing.