37 Pronouns – Self-reference and Gender Sensitivity

Using “I” and “We”—the First Person

A few years ago, an old dog taught me a new trick. I edited a technical report for a gentleman who works for a government agency and has authored over 200 papers. He was highly respectful of all my editorial suggestions, but corrected me on one. I told him that he was bucking convention by using “we” throughout his report, and that the standard was to avoid using the term in technical writing, just as I had been told by others. He assured me that he had “breezily been getting away with it” for 40 years, and I agreed just as breezily that he should not change his practice after such a winning record. Finally, I came away from our interaction with an important question: Was this scientist-author a maverick, or was he in fact practicing the customary?

To form an answer, I pulled 40 journals at random from one of my university’s technical library’s shelves. The journals ranged from the international refereed European Journal of Mineralogy to the more advertising-driven Spray Technology and Marketing. To my surprise, in 32 out of the 40 journals, the authors indeed made liberal use of “I” and “we” (referred to grammatically as “the first person”). In one case (an article in Water Resources Journal), the authors used “we” in nearly every paragraph. I realized then that I had been upholding a principle that was either outmoded or at least in flux, without considering the convention in the published literature. A lesson learned.

Nevertheless, addressing the issue here is not as simple as saying “go ahead and use the first person freely.” Here are some considered guidelines to follow:

• You can use the first person in an abstract or introduction to stress the foundations of your particular approach, express authorial intentions, or emphasize your scientific convictions:
  

  In this paper, I argue that . . .

  In contrast to other authors, we conclude that . . .

• When the first person does not suit you or your reader’s taste, but you need to be self-referential, consider the common alternatives such as “this author,” “this paper.” Keep in mind, though, that these options can sound a bit stilted.
• In memos, especially when they involve one-on-one communication between you and one other party, use the first person (and the word “you”) as needed, in particular in the introduction and conclusion.
• Use the first person plural (“we”) when you wish to include the reader as part of a collective, thinking body:
  

  We can agree that something must be done about the quality of care in HMO programs.

• Limit your use of the first person so that you do not create circumstances requiring you to use it repeatedly. For example, by convention, avoid using the first person in the “Experimental” section of a technical report—if you begin to use “we” in this section, you would continually have to repeat its use for consistency.
• Be particularly cautious with first-person terms suggesting ownership—e.g., “my” and “our.” It would be awkward to write “I connected my patchcord” or “We closed our tank,” in that the issue of ownership is irrelevant to the science and interpretation.
• By convention, you may use the first person plural (“we”) to introduce equations:
  

  We can calculate the green densities of the pellets with the equation . . .

Despite what I have outlined above, recognize that some professors and editors will adamantly reject the use of first-person pronouns in technical writing. Revise accordingly when needed.

Choosing Gender-Neutral Language

From a stylistic standpoint, one of the best things about the need for writers to choose gender-neutral language is that it forces them to explore the options that have always been available to them. Most students are aware that they should choose gender-neutral language when they write and give oral presentations, but if it just causes them to use “his/her” repeatedly then they are not living up to their obligations to keep their writing highly readable and efficient. Also, writing a sentence such as “Someone should lend their voice to this problem” is still grammatically unacceptable because “someone” is singular and “their” is plural. Most good writers attack the problem in the following ways:

• By simply being more specific or creative about word choice (writing “humans” rather than “man”).
• By using plural nouns rather than singular ones when appropriate (“scientists” rather than “a scientist”), or by avoiding gender-specific pronouns (“the author” rather than “he”).
• By writing “he or she” (not “he/she”) when it is not awkward or overly repetitive to do so.
• By changing some words to other parts of speech, thereby avoiding gender-specific pronouns (“walking” might work better than “he walked” as long as the grammar of the revision is sound).
• By alternating between using “he” and “she” (as I have done in this handbook), especially in longer pieces.

With these tactics in mind, consider the following example:

The consumer himself has the power to reduce fuel costs: If he sets his residential thermostat 2 degrees higher in the summer and 2 degrees lower in the winter, he saves energy.

In a revised version of this sentence, the gender-specific language of the original is avoided:

Consumers have the power to reduce fuel costs: By setting their residential thermostats 2 degrees higher in the summer and 2 degrees lower in the winter, they save energy.

Standard English usage still calls for the masculine form (“he” or “his”) to refer correctly to either gender in writing, but rely on this only when you have to. In technical writing, do not let your concern for gender-neutral language cause your usage to be too unconventional (“personhole cover”? “personkind”? “s/he”?); instead, do exercise your options as a writer wisely, and remember that our language is always in flux. Keep your eye on it.

Source URL: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/styleforstudents/c1_p15.html