Using “I” and “You” in Academic Prose

When writing a history paper or some other piece of academic prose, do not refer to yourself or the reader with I or you. In fact, you should not refer to either party explicitly at all.

Avoiding these two little words can be difficult, because we use them constantly in everyday life, whether we are speaking or writing an email message. We also use them in blog posts. If you think about it, though, the rule makes sense. An email is by its very nature personal, regardless of how formal it might be. Blog posts and certain kinds of journalism are a lot like that too. But formal essays are supposed to present an argument in a more objective manner.

Your reader expects that you have done the research and are offering something more substantial than a personal opinion. You run counter to such expectations with phrases such as I think, in my opinion, and I believe. Moreover, these expressions just waste time. Of course the contents of your essay represents your opinion on a matter. Your name is on the thing, right? Phrases like you know and you see add nothing to your meaning either.

So am I being a hypocrite here? No. Remember, this is not formal academic prose. It is a simple blog post. Here I can adopt a natural conversational style, if I think it will help me to communicate my message more effectively. But even here I avoid testing readers’ patience with useless turns of phrase.

Would this post be any better, if I started, you know, talking like this? I don’t really think so, you know, but what do you think? Am I like totally wasting my time? You know what I’m saying, right?