Hi All (My first 'created thread'! :$)

I am writing up at the moment, have written c40,000 words at this stage. Heretofore I have always written in the 3rd person (I am a mature student afterall!!) and my supervisor also does the same. However when I read back over what I have done thus far I think a 1st person approach might work better, particularly for my methodology. I was interested in getting other people's opinions on this. I know traditionally it was always '3rd' person and that that trend has been relaxed in recent times but what do people think? I'm in the social sciences. Might it irritate an external examiner??

Any advice most welcome

A

I always thought I had to stick to "this study shows that.." kind of language rather than "I did this" but recently I've ventured into 'we' for publications. Not too sure about thesis though - as you can't really say 'we' as there's only 1 author. I definitely won't put 'I' ever - perhaps apart from a section I'm thinking about putting in which may be a reflective few pages about my thoughts and experiences doing the PhD, but still not sure about this section, it seems a bit too 'Dr. Phil' for me.

Anyway, so generally I stay away from 'I'

I prefer using "the author" instead of "I".

This depends, I think. If it's qualitative research, you can use 'I'. Afterall, you're essentially the instrument. I also think for reflective elements, that reflect your growth and development, you can use 'I'. For quantitative work, it's third person. If it's mixed methods, depending on your worldview, you can use a combination of the two.

I am using the 3rd person in my thesis, except in my methodology chapter, where I use "I" a lot.
I am doing a qualitative study in social sciences....