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In this article, Conal Hamill aims to contribute to the on-going debate about the appropriate use of first person writing in academic nursing assignments and provide guidance for nursing undergraduates.
key words
Study skills
Student nurses
These key words are based on subject headings from the British Nursing Index. This article has been subject to double-blind review.
Hamil C(1999) Academic essay writing in the first person: a guide for undergraduate. Nursing Standard, 13,44,38-40. Date of acceptance: May 14 1999.
FOR SOME time now I have been concerned with the writing gymnastics that many undergraduates go through when attempting to write an academic essay as part of course requirements. Somewhere between leaving school and entering the academic nursing world they have been seduced into thinking that good essays are always written in the third person. This dilemma was further highlighted for me when a qualitative research article of mine was accepted for publication (Hamill 1995). The external reviewer maintained that the article would have 'read better if written in the third person.' This was despite the fact that the introduction outlined why it was written in the first person and cited three sources of supporting literature (Porter 1993, Reid 1991, Webb 1992).
While most nursing undergraduates will not yet have had the opportunity to undertake research, it is nevertheless important to recognise when first person writing is appropriate, and equally important, when it is not. The examples below (Box 1), taken from assignments I marked recently, clearly demonstrate students' struggle with third person literary style.
Although these examples are taken from the introductions to student essays, the use of 'the writer' or 'the author' is often repeated throughout the text. Somewhere in the course of undertaking pre-registration nurse training these students have been erroneously advised that good academic writing requires a cool, detached, analytical and objective stance. Such a stance avoids using 'I,' 'we,' or 'our.' Often this results in the tortuous and repetitive use of 'the author,' 'the writer' or 'the present author,' when students are in fact referring to themselves. Burnard (1994) rhetorically asks 'Who, if not 'I' is writing these words?'.
What is first person writing?
Writing in the first person means referring to yourself as 'I' or when...