Can you use first person in introduction and conclusion?

For my diss idk whether I can say ‘ my aim is to research....’ or ‘ I am to approach this issue in three chapters’

Can I say ‘ In this dissertation?’ It just feel unprofessional

Reply 1

Anonymous #2

You can use first person, but very sparingly. For my dissertation, I only used first person "I" in my acknowledgements section to thank my lab supervisors, lab supervisor, etc. for their help in the project.

First person should only be used in metadiscourse (aka when a writer refers to themselves or summarizes their work and thinking process)

You could instead say things like "The aim of this study was to investigate..." etc. Definitely aim to write in third person, and use an impassive academic style of writing.

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

Original post by Anonymous

Perfect thank you!

Reply 3

Noodlzzz

Subject? Not all are the same in regards to this.

Reply 4

PhoenixFortune

Original post by Anonymous

For my diss idk whether I can say ‘ my aim is to research....’ or ‘ I am to approach this issue in three chapters’

Can I say ‘ In this dissertation?’ It just feel unprofessional

It depends on the discipline. I studied Linguistics, and we were told to never use first person in essays or our dissertation.

Also, 'in this dissertation' sounds too clunky - 'this project' or 'this research' is better, but use very sparingly.

Reply 5

hallamstudents

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

For my diss idk whether I can say ‘ my aim is to research....’ or ‘ I am to approach this issue in three chapters’

Can I say ‘ In this dissertation?’ It just feel unprofessional

Hi

This will depend on what course you are studying, so it is best to check with your course tutors if you can use first person or not. For my course we have been told that we should not use first person at all in essays or assignments.

Zaira :smile: