Omitting that can cause the reader to misinterpret (at first anyway) the subject of the dependent clause as the object of the reporting verb (Jamieson, 201. This booklet is about determining when to use pronouns in the first person (“I”, we”, “I”, “us”, “my” and “our”) and personal experience in academic writing. You can choose to use “Me”, but not make any reference to your individual experiences in a particular article. Or you can include a brief description of an experience that can help illustrate a point you're making without ever using the word “me”. Therefore, whether or not you should use first-person experience and personal experience are actually two separate questions, both of which are addressed in this booklet.
It also offers some alternatives if you decide that “me” or personal experience is not appropriate for your project. If you've decided that you want to use one of them, this booklet offers some ideas on how to do it effectively, because in many cases using one or the other could strengthen your writing. Therefore, when you adapt to your purpose as a scholar, you will probably have to break some of the old rules, particularly the rules that prohibit first-person pronouns and personal experience. While there are certainly some instructors who think that these rules should be followed (so it's a good idea to ask directly), many instructors in all kinds of fields are finding reasons to depart from these rules.
Avoiding the “I” can lead to clumsiness and vagueness, while using it in your writing can improve style and clarity. The use of personal experience, when relevant, can add concreteness and even authority to writing that might otherwise be vague and impersonal. Because college writing situations vary widely in terms of stylistic conventions, tone, audience, and purpose, the trick is to decipher the conventions of your writing context and determining how your purpose and audience affect the way you write. The rest of this booklet is devoted to strategies for determining when to use “Me” and personal experience.
The original example sounds less emphatic and straightforward than the revised version; using “I” allows writers to avoid the intricate construction of the original and clarifies who did what. In situations where your intention is to sound conversational and friendly because it fits your purpose, as you do in this booklet intended to offer helpful advice, or in a letter or speech, “it can help create just the sense of familiarity you seek. But in most academic writing situations, “you sound too conversational, such as in a statement like “when you read the poem 'The Wasteland', you feel a sense of emptiness. In this case, the “you” sounds too conversational.
The statement would read better as “The poem 'The Wasteland' creates a sense of emptiness. Academic writers almost always use alternatives to the second person pronoun, such as “one “, the reader, or “people”. Avoid always using the word in your academic writing, as it can generalize a statement and convey an absolute that might not be accurate. If you want to say something about all the participants in your study, use specific language to clarify that the statement applies to coherent action among the participants in your study.
In academic writing, the use of clichés will erode your credibility and take away all the research and hard work you have put into your project. These two phrases are often used interchangeably, but you should avoid both in your academic writing. Sarah's academic background includes a Master of Arts in English, a Master's in International Affairs, and a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science. The question of whether personal experience has a place in academic writing depends on context and purpose.
Expressing your opinion is appropriate in certain sections of a dissertation and in particular types of academic texts (such as personal statements and reflective or argumentative essays). If you consult your teacher or counselor's rubric, follow the style guidelines, and avoid the words or phrases on this list, you can even have fun the next time you have to stay up all night to finish an academic paper. Even when used correctly to contrast ideas of connection in support of your argument, these academic phrases can generally be removed from your writing. When writing a dissertation, thesis, or research paper, many words and phrases that are acceptable in conversation or informal writing are considered inappropriate in academic writing.
It's also true that a certain level of professionalism and academic language are required to give your work or research the authority it needs to convey your ideas. When used sparingly and appropriately, words such as “however”, “in addition” and “in addition” can be useful in taking the reader from one idea to another or connecting sentences to maintain flow and clarity in their academic writing. When you first learn the mechanics of structuring an academic work, whether you're a native English speaker or someone learning English as a second language, it's easy to fall into the trap of relying too much on certain common academic phrases. Like the previous sentence (to a large extent), many things are too vague and informal for academic work.
