How to Avoid Personal Language in Your University Writing
What Is the Problem with Personal Language?
One of the main rules of university writing is that personal language is avoided. Why? Because a long time ago, people decided on what should and should not be a feature of academic writing style, and not using personal language was one of them. Much like other genres of writing, such as a film review, a novel or a text message, there are certain expectations that help us identify which genre something belongs to, and academic writing is no different.
Whereas a film review would be very expressive, descriptive and persuasive, university writing is cold and factual. Indeed, when writing academically, university writing expects a text to be impartial and objective, that “prioritises factual information and research over your own viewpoints” (University of York, 2024). Therefore, to be factual and unbiased (as much as possible), university writing removes the personal element so the language can focus more on the evidence and ideas, rather than what people (or you, the writer) think, believe or feel.
How to Avoid Being Personal
Like everything related to university writing, academic style takes practice. Like everything in life, it can soon become a habit if we do it enough.
Here are some examples:
- Instead of writing “I will discuss/evaluate [or any verb here]“, write something such as “This essay will...” or “The aim of this assignment is to….” By doing this, you remove the need to use personal language, but still indicate what the assignment wants to achieve.
- In other genres, it is common to write phrase such as “I believe” or “I think“, but at university you need to avoid these. However, doing this is not as simple as the examples in the previous point. When we write “I believe/think” we are giving our opinion about something we have (usually) written in a previous sentence. So, basically you are making a concluding or evaluative remark. To do this without personal language, means replacing those examples with phrases like “From this, it appears that” or “This seems to show/suggest that…“, and then say what the ideas seem to be showing you. (look out for a future post on criticality, as it relates to ideas about being evaluative in university academic writing).
- Using adverbs can also be a way to avoid personal language. For example, you could be interpreting the findings of research (you own or another person’s) and you were “surprised” by them. Rather than writing “I was surprised by the results relating to…“, you can write, “Surprisingly, the results relating to….”. Changing the verb to an adverb keeps the meaning but changes the structure and removes the “I“.
Should You Use Personal Language?
As can be surmised from above, when it comes to university writing, the general rule is “no, you shouldn’t”. So, if in doubt, don’t use it. However, there are two things to remember :
Firstly, if you are writing reflectively (i.e. you have a reflective assignment or reflective section) then you would write in a personal way. This is because reflective writing is personal and expects lots of “I” and “you” and “we”.
Secondly, what does your module teacher expect? I see many university students and, trust me, they are told different things by different lecturers. Though I often think that the lecturers should get together and agree on a clear idea when it comes to personal language, this has not happened (and is unlikely to ever happen). Therefore, as some subjects/lecturers appear to have stricter rules when using language than others, you (yes, the personal “you”) should clarify this in advance of starting the assignment i.e. not when you are in the middle of writing it.
Here is a short video on using personal language
University of York (2024), Academic language: a Practical Guide. Available at Objective and impersonal language – Academic language: a Practical Guide – Subject Guides at University of York. [Accessed: 30/12/24]