Academic Writing: Words: How to avoid using personal language

I think Ned Kelly relied on his Irish heritage to gain local sympathy.
Ned Kelly relied on his Irish heritage to gain local sympathy.

We use the passive voice to make our writing sound objective.
The passive voice makes writing sound objective.

2. DO NOT refer to what you think; refer instead to what the evidence suggests.

Beware: "In some disciplines it is acceptable (even preferable) to use personal language. Check these language conventions with your departments."

AVOID using personal judgement words²	USE words referring to the evidence
I think	From examining the findings,
I feel	In light of the evidence,
I believe	From previous research,
I am convinced that	Considering the results,
I disliked	According to the figures,
I liked	As shown in the diagram,
I agree	It is evident from the data that
I disagree	The literature suggests
I am sure that	Given this information,
It is my belief that	Some theorists argue that

The following example from a report expresses many opinions yet personal language is not used to do this. It instead refers to the literature and evidence in the form of survey results as well as using third person constructions - 'it' phrases, (see point 3 below) and so avoids having to use a personal judgement phrase such as "I think" in order to express an opinion.

It is widely accepted in academia that "You must be 'seen' to be heard" (Moles & Clarke, 1995, p85); this sentiment was supported by 84% of the surveyed academics who felt that it was important to publish on the Internet. Moreover, the evidence in the literature suggests academic publishing on the Internet is flourishing. For example, the Directory of Electronic Journals Newsletters and Academic Discussion Lists (5th ed.) lists 675 electronic journals and newsletters, along with 2500 scholarly discussion groups (King, 1995, pl-760).

According to the surveyed academics, 42% would rather publish in a print journal and 56% would prefer to read articles in print journals. From these survey results, it could be argued...

It could be arguedthat	It has been suggestedthat
It can be seen that	It appears that
It was found that	It is generally agreed that
It could be concluded that	It seems that
It tends to be	It is widely accepted that
It is doubtful that	It is evident from the data that

The passive voice should be used in academic writing when the 'doer' of the action in a sentence is unknown or irrelevant to the discussion. Passive sentence construction emphasises the events and processes the sentence is describing.

Personal pronouns are avoided when using the passive voice; focus moves off 'doer' and onto the action.

Active
We cut a segment of the apple and placed it in agar solution.

Passive
A segment of the apple was cut and placed in agar solution.

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Active
Our loggers transport the offcuts to the waste station.

Passive
The offcuts are transported to the waste station.

The passive verb includes the past participle of the verb 'to be'.

If so, go to the Summary Exercise that covers all the aspects of using Impersonal Language.

1 Adapted from: Aveline Perez (The Learning Skills Unit, University of Melbourne) Academic Language.

2 Jordon, R. R. (1992) Academic Writing Course. Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson and Sons.

3 Text adapted in part from: Learning Development, University of Wollongong Academic English: Self Directed learning Resource.