Research

I absolutely disagree with the statement: You can’t use the pronoun I.

If you are writing a research paper, using your opinions and crediting yourself for them is important, as long as you have factual support. I think kids are just taught not to use the pronoun “I” so that every sentence isn’t an opinion. I was always scared to use it because I was taught that it wasn’t allowed. But I think it’s mainly because my teachers were trying to get me to see the difference between research papers and argumentative papers.

I agree with the statement: You can use your own writing voice.

Even though a research paper is supposed to be more formal, the use of a person’s voice will keep it from making others fall asleep. When someone writes in their voice, you get a feel of who they are, and it makes the paper more interesting to read. I think that people should always write in their voice, unless of course they are writing a strictly factual scientific journal or something like that. But an article in the newspaper or in a magazine is meant for entertainment, and should be written so. I know I don’t read magazines to make myself get bored and fall asleep. That defeats the purpose. Using your voice in a paper also makes it unique to you. Ten people could write a paper on the same prompt with the exact same information, and all ten papers would be completely different because everyone’s voice is different.