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Q&A How can I stop overusing "I" in my writing?

Put it in Neutral. As if YOU did not write the paper, but must describe the action line by line. An example from your first linked example: I will also try to show that the unrelaxed differenc...

posted 6y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:29Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37526
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T09:19:56Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37526
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T09:19:56Z (over 4 years ago)
## Put it in Neutral.

As if YOU did not write the paper, but must describe the action line by line. An example from your first linked example:

> I will also try to show that the unrelaxed difference density is still not equivalent to the transition density.

An attempt will be made to show the unrelaxed ...

> I can't find the definition of {a} in the paper,

The paper apparently contains no definition of {a} ...

> Importantly, we always start from the set of ground-state MO coefficients

It is important to start from the set of ground-state MO coefficients ...

> Because I don't want to mess with the block-diagonal structure of PΔMO, I will transform T to the MO basis:

The block-diagonal structure of PΔMO is preserved by transformation to the MO basis:

> I am not sure if the MO coefficients in the double sum can be simplified, but it doesn't matter; assume they are unity.

Whether the MO coefficients in the double sum can be simplified or not will not matter; assume they are unity.

And so on.The "couching in qualifiers" speech pattern is something we called Programmer's Disease when I was in college (four decades ago), but plagues scientists generally; a side-effect of learning that damn near everything has exceptions and to be accurate requires qualifiers. So you gain accuracy by restricting the domain of cases you are describing.

However, to laymen and undergrads, every qualifier _subtracts_ certainty from what you are talking about, thus the more qualifiers you use, the closer you asymptotically approach the state of having said nothing at all they can understand.

If they push back with questions or qualifiers of their own, they prove their ability to process a restricted domain, so acknowledge your overreach in the interest of simplicity and use qualifiers to restrict the domain then.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-07-09T15:47:00Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 2