Don’t use the first person

Filling your essay with ‘I’s and ‘we’s is fine for a personal piece of writing, but in formal writing, it isn’t really appropriate. In fact, the third person is almost always required in formal and academic writing. There’s a big difference between using the first person and the third person points of view.

The farmers group said that the tariffs should be increased.

This sentence is talking about what someone else said, so it is fairly objective. Use the first person, however, and it becomes quite subjective:

I think that the tariffs should be increased.

In this sentence it’s all about what I think. This automatically makes it my subjective opinion.

Click here to move on to the next topic: Write from a general persons perspective