148 – You, your language and your material
r how to handle certain common words of enquiry whose
uses generate a lot of heated controversy.
One of the main themes in this book has been that an essay is your
best answer to a question. If the essay is to be your answer, rather
than the answer or an answer or someone else’s answer, it is necessary
to start paying close attention to some of the problems that arise in
your use of language as you strive to establish a relationship with the
material you have to mould. In this chapter we shall study a few of
these problems. The first is an old bugbear – whether one should use
‘I’ in an academic essay. But there are others (set out in the box above)
which can just as easily arise if you are uncertain about your position
as a scholar and writer.
1
Subjective and objective: the uses of ‘I’ and ‘we’
There is much confusion, not just in students’ minds but in tutors’
too, on whether ‘I’ and ‘we’ may be used in academic writing. Some
tutors encourage you to be direct in your writing and to use ‘I’.
Others perpetuate an old myth that if you use ‘I’ your writing is too
‘subjective’. You will probably find that the two words ‘subjective’
and ‘objective’ are very commonly flung about in your university or
college as a shorthand to distinguish the unreliable and idiosyncratic
opinions of individuals from the tried and tested truths of science or
scholarship.
Preferences are obvious examples of subjectivity. For example, ‘I like Picasso prints in my bathroom’ states no more than an
individual idiosyncrasy. A statement like this is often confused with
ones that can look rather similar: ‘I think Machiavelli’s reputation as
an amoral rogue is thoroughly undeserved’; or ‘I conclude that the
texture of the language in Arundhati Roy’s novel The God of Small
Things is wholly appropriate to the world she creates.’ Now, whether
or not these two statements are subjective has absolutely nothing to do
with the use of ‘I’. It depends entirely on whether these judgements
have been justified (or are to be justified) in the piece of language
of which they form the conclusion. You can see that the presence or
r how to handle certain common words of enquiry whose
uses generate a lot of heated controversy.
One of the main themes in this book has been that an essay is your
best answer to a question. If the essay is to be your answer, rather
than the answer or an answer or someone else’s answer, it is necessary
to start paying close attention to some of the problems that arise in
your use of language as you strive to establish a relationship with the
material you have to mould. In this chapter we shall study a few of
these problems. The first is an old bugbear – whether one should use
‘I’ in an academic essay. But there are others (set out in the box above)
which can just as easily arise if you are uncertain about your position
as a scholar and writer.
1
Subjective and objective: the uses of ‘I’ and ‘we’
There is much confusion, not just in students’ minds but in tutors’
too, on whether ‘I’ and ‘we’ may be used in academic writing. Some
tutors encourage you to be direct in your writing and to use ‘I’.
Others perpetuate an old myth that if you use ‘I’ your writing is too
‘subjective’. You will probably find that the two words ‘subjective’
and ‘objective’ are very commonly flung about in your university or
college as a shorthand to distinguish the unreliable and idiosyncratic
opinions of individuals from the tried and tested truths of science or
scholarship.
Preferences are obvious examples of subjectivity. For example, ‘I like Picasso prints in my bathroom’ states no more than an
individual idiosyncrasy. A statement like this is often confused with
ones that can look rather similar: ‘I think Machiavelli’s reputation as
an amoral rogue is thoroughly undeserved’; or ‘I conclude that the
texture of the language in Arundhati Roy’s novel The God of Small
Things is wholly appropriate to the world she creates.’ Now, whether
or not these two statements are subjective has absolutely nothing to do
with the use of ‘I’. It depends entirely on whether these judgements
have been justified (or are to be justified) in the piece of language
of which they form the conclusion. You can see that the presence or