The Myth of Objectivity: Revised

 Have you ever been told not to use “I” in your writing because it’s “not academic”? A lot of students hear that advice and take it as fact. But here’s something worth thinking about—cutting out “I” doesn’t make writing more neutral. It just makes it less personal and often harder to follow.

I remember once changing an entire paragraph just to avoid starting with “I think.” The version I ended up turning in sounded cleaner, maybe, but it didn’t sound like me. It felt like I had taken the heart out of what I wanted to say.

The idea that using “I” makes your writing less credible is a myth. Every piece of writing has a writer behind it. Even if you don’t use first-person pronouns, your choices, arguments, and perspectives are still there. Hiding “I” doesn’t make a paper objective—it just makes it harder to connect with and often harder to understand.

Kimberly N. Parker talks about this in her essay Never Use “I”, where she writes, “Writing can become a disembodied task… devoid of any joy, connection, or feeling.” I’ve definitely been there. When writing becomes about avoiding mistakes instead of saying something meaningful, it loses all the things that make it interesting.

Julia Molinari adds to this conversation by arguing that removing the writer from the writing doesn’t remove bias—it just makes it less visible. And that’s not helpful. Being upfront about your perspective, especially in academic or reflective writing, can actually increase your credibility because the reader knows where you’re coming from.

Of course, using “I” doesn’t mean writing a diary entry. It just means being present in your writing and taking ownership of your thoughts. There’s nothing unprofessional about that—it’s honest and clear.

So the next time someone says to leave “I” out of your paper to sound more objective, think about what the goal of good writing really is. It’s not to hide. It’s to communicate.

What do you think?
Have you ever felt like your writing lost its meaning because you were told to leave yourself out of it?

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