Why aren't first person pronouns acceptable in academic writing?

Question

In my college English class, I wrote >“In this essay, I analyze…” and my college professor made me lose points for it, as she says you should never use first person or second person pronouns in academic writing, so I just changed it to her recommendation which was: >“This essay analyzes…” But wouldn’t it be more obscure and not, in fact, even correct because an essay cannot analyze something but rather show the analysis of something? Plus, doesn't it also have less meaning since for all you know, a group of researchers analyzed something, when it was only one person. And I've seen great scientific research papers use "I" like that. I guess they weren't academic... Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

First pronouns are acceptable in academic writing. Most of my college professors either highly discouraged us using anything but first person or just didn't care either way. Most academic or research papers will have some form of "I" because it's almost virtually impossible to avoid it. Second person is rare or and not the easiest or smoothest to use, depending on the form and subject you're writing. It sounds like it's just the personal preference of your college professor because she finds it messy for some reason, was taught that herself, or that she was trying to expand your writing skills to not always rely on something you're comfortable with. Either way, I don't think it's something you should get points taken off for.

Hope this helps!