Cut Yourself Out

Do you remember the lesson called "Leave Yourself out of It"?

In that lesson, you learned that the "I" point of view does not belong in an academic paper, because—with rare exceptions—personal experience does not count as evidence.

In this lesson, we're going to expand on this rule.

Don't write phrases such as "I believe . . ."

The personal pronoun "I" often creeps into student papers when they write phrases like:

• I believe that France is a wonderful country.
• I think you'll have a great time.
• In my personal opinion, France is . . .

The best way to deal with these phrases is simply to cut them out.

• France is a wonderful country.
• You will have a great time.

The truth is that phrases such as "I believe" and "I think" are frowned upon in academic writing, because they are considered weak. Compare the following sentences:

Weak	Stronger
I think the food in the cafeteria is unhealthy.	The food in the cafeteria is unhealthy.
In my opinion, nuclear energy is dangerous.	Nuclear energy is dangerous.

Be strong. Be confident. Get rid of phrases such as "I believe," and "I think," and "in my opinion".

The 2nd-Person Pronoun

"You" is the second-person pronoun. Be circumspect (cautious) when using it. Is it really necessary? If not, leave it out.

Weak	Better
As you can see, the illegal drug trade has affected the earth in a terrible way.	The illegal drug trade has affected the earth in a terrible way.

The Pronoun "We"

The pronoun "we" can also cause problems.

Some columnists do it all the time, with sentences such as "We need a great president like Abraham Lincoln today."

Of course, the reader of the column understands that "we" refers to America or Americans.

However, in a formal academic paper, you should really be writing for an international audience. Therefore, it would be better to say: "The United States would benefit from a president like Lincoln today."

Use your best judgment. If using "we" results in a cleaner, smoother sentence, go ahead and use it. But if you can rewrite the sentence without using "we", and the resulting sentence is equally pleasing, then it's best to leave it out.

Lesson Steps

1 Reread your paper. Take out any reference to yourself. 2 Do you refer to your own experiences in your paper? 3 Does your paper contain any of the following phrases? I believe In my opinion I think 4 Congratulations! You're almost done with this lesson. Now, just take the quiz at the bottom of the page.

Instructions for the Quiz

Answer the questions.

Quiz