Can I use the passive voice to avoid referring to myself in a scientific report?
I'm writing a report for a piece of University coursework, but I understand that I should avoid referring to myself as "me" or "I". I've seen an example piece in which the author occasionally referred to themselves as "the author", but this seems a little clunky depending how I use it.
Would it be better to use the passive voice? For example, in the beginning of my report should I write
The author will consider several arguments...
or
Several arguments will be considered...
Which looks better? Are there better alternatives to "the author"?
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You've pretty much got the 3 choices. Use first person with active voice, use passive voice, or use 3rd person stating "the author" (or "the writer," "the researcher," etc).
I will say it depends on the field. I too was taught that only the latter two were acceptable (and mostly the passive voice one). But I've seen plenty of academic papers that use first person (mostly I've seen it in plural, but not entirely). As long as it's done sparingly and very professionally, it can work. But it really depends on what your peers have done.
In your case, it depends on what your professor thinks is okay. You can always ask!
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You can also use the royal "we", even if there was only one person doing it.
"We conditioned the matrices using ..."
"After these adjustments, we found a significant increase in ..."
We use this extensively. We think it improves readability as well. It has never been mentioned as an issue in any (of many) peer reviews.
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