Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

PERSONALISING AND DE-PERSONALISING: PRONOUNS

147

I versus we

147a

The personal pronoun I is used in academic discourse for self-reference, particularly

when referring to one’s own stance (one’s position or viewpoint) or conclusions, or

when contrasting one’s own approach with that of others. It commonly occurs with

verbs expressing stance, particularly in humanities disciplines, and particularly in

spoken academic style. Such verbs include: 

accept

advocate

agree

argue

assume

believe

consider

propose

suggest

suppose

suspect 

think

for sure/for certain

it is/was clear/obvious/

indisputable/

etc. that 

there is/was no doubt that 

without doubt

categorically

certainly

clearly

definitely

emphatically

indisputably

inevitably

irrefutably

observably

obviously

plainly

undeniably

undoubtedly

unquestionably

284 | Grammar and academic English

Cambridge Grammar of English

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I consider it unlikely that instruction accounts for anywhere near as much

vocabulary growth as does incidental acquisition from context during reading.

[pathology lecture]

Right. We’ve got production of toxins. An endotoxin or an extra toxin. Right. 

I assume you know the difference between the two. So we won’t go into it. 

I 

can occasionally be used with a generic meaning, particularly in the discipline 

of philosophy:

To guarantee the truth of my belief that you are in pain, 

I need only 

determine whether the relevant physical, criterial conditions are satisfied. 

But if 

I believe that being in pain involves something distinguishable from 

the satisfaction of such public conditions, 

I am in serious philosophical

trouble. Could it be that what 

I assume to be other people are people in

appearance only? 

(I here refers to any person who thinks/acts in the way described)

We

is typically used to refer to more than one author of an academic paper or

article. Nowadays it is becoming less frequent for single authors to refer to

themselves in the first person plural:

[paper by two authors]

In this paper 

we report our experience with ear-tattooing in order to compare 

it with other methods used for marking small mammals.

The other characteristic use of we is to refer to the speaker/writer and

listener/reader together, creating a sense of an academic community shared by 

all participants in the discourse:

[virology lecture]

We know the molecular biology of this virus in very great detail. We know the

sequence of the genome from end to end. Now 

we know the proteins encoded

by that genome. 

Single authors may sometimes use we as an inclusive strategy to carry the reader

along with them in the unfolding argument or presentation of facts, even though 

it is the single author who has presented the arguments or facts:

In describing the process of gravitational instability 

we have oversimplified

matters a little.

We

also occurs in textual signposting, where the writer/speaker is orienting 

the reader in some way, or pointing to links within the text to other parts of 

the text:

It is true, 

as 

we have seen elsewhere in this book

, that individual changes may

aid or impair communication to a limited extent.