[Deleted]
Should I use "we" or the passive voice in a master's thesis?
2. Mai 2014 19:40
Antworten · 4
5
If you are writing a master's thesis, I would expect you to have a thesis advisor, and you should ask your advisor directly. Also ask for examples of recent theses in your department that were considered good work, and seek out actual journal articles in your field of study, and use them as a model. Somewhere in your institution, someone will have a style guide for theses, at least for the mechanical formatting details. You will need to know how to format the references, how to number the pages, and how wide the margins need to be. While you are looking for that, you should ask if anyone has prepared any written guidelines to writing style. Outside of academic journals, most authorities recommend against using the passive voice in expository prose because it is indirect, colorless, vague, and boring. However, in professional scientific writing, using the words "we" or, worse, "I," is seen as egotistical, subjective and opinionated. So, the passive voice rules; experiments were performed, data was taken, statistics were computed, etc. Find what is customary for professional writing in your own field and use it as a model.
2. Mai 2014
2
Alexandra: I have never been comfortable with authors of any kind who write of themselves as a "plurality" of persons. In published materials attributed to a single author, I think you shoulder write I. As a book reviewer, when I find an author employing the Plural Form for a book of single authorship, I accuse them every time of using the common logical error designated The Bandwagon Fallacy. This error is common in popular literature. For example, Journalist Christopher Hitchens employs the plural this way, which makes him an easy target for criticism. . .
2. Mai 2014
1
One generally avoids both the passive and the plural when one can use the impersonal 'one' just as easily. It avoids the subjectivity of both 'I' and 'we' by association with 'anyone' and 'everyone'. It imparts to one's pronouncements the nuances of 'impartial' and 'global', in short, 'objective'. When writing academic theses, one should keep this advice in mind. ; )
2. Mai 2014
I'm glad you shared your thoughts. It is actually very difficult to decide to write a dissertation. I think you will be interested in dissertation proposal writing services https://www.phdresearchproposal.org/ as it will take a lot of time to write it. I will be glad if it will make your life easier.
28. September 2023
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