3 ms·
To be clear, "we" is first person, plural. I take it your comment and gp to mean "I" by "first person" and not "we". Anyway, it's standard in scientific writi
by ethan_g 10y ago
To be clear, "we" is first person, plural. I take it your comment and gp to mean "I" by "first person" and not "we".
Anyway, it's standard in scientific writing to use "we" instead of "I". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We#The_author.27s_.22we.22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We#The_author.27s_.22we.22
- fragsworth 10y agoIt is also a very subtle way to make it sound more credible, because it gives the reader a sense that multiple people did the work.
- jkot 10y agoOr it was written by king :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_we https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_we
- grondilu 10y agoOn the other hand it can also some kind of proof of honesty and transparency. "Hey, I did that work alone, which is slightly odd, but hey at least I'm not hiding this fact." I agree with haddr above. People should not be ashamed of using "I" instead of "we" when it's relevant.
- dekhn 10y agoFor single author papers, I see many papers that switch from "we" to "I". We are probably observing a trend in the process.