Imagine you are writing a dissertation or journal article in the
social sciences. You want to sound objective and professional. For that
purpose, which person should you use: first (I/we) or third
(he/she/they)? Which voice: active or passive? Once upon a time, you
would have said third and passive without even blinking. Not so now.
If you start with the first question, asking whether the first person
(I, we) is appropriate for writing in the social sciences, you will
find people on both sides of the fence. The choice of whether to use
this ultimately depends on the institution to which you belong or the
journal to which you are submitting. However, as far as APA style is
concerned, the first person is not only appropriate but perhaps also
ideal. Why? Quite simply, for clarity and ethical considerations.
Clarity
The APA style manual indicates in 2.04, the section on writing abstracts, that abstracts should be “coherent and readable,”
which, for the style manual authors, means using the active rather than
the passive voice (26). Moreover, in 3.18, the section on verbs, the
authors recommend using the active voice everywhere except possibly the Method section, where “the passive voice is acceptable
. . . when you want to focus on the object or recipient of the action
rather than the actor” (emphasis mine, 77). The examples in these
sections use “the authors” or “we” to demonstrate use of the active. In
fact, more often than not, the style manual uses “I” or “we” in examples
of correct usage.
Therefore, unless precluded by other standards (i.e., those of your
institution or a specific journal), you want, as much as possible, to
use the active vs. the passive voice.
Why is th
e active rather than the passive clearer? And why does using the active often mean using the first person?
First, the active voice is
direct. When action occurs, the subject is doing the action. Moreover,
when you are describing your own actions in the active, the most direct
way, the clearest way, is to use “I” or “we.”
Take, for example, the following sentence: “I conducted interviews with the 29 participants.”
“I,” the subject, is doing the action, “conducting interviews.”
The passive is indirect. In such language, the subject is the
receiver of the action. We can put the example above into the passive
using “be” and the past participle (and switching the subject and
object).
“The interviews were conducted by me.”
Notice, we can construct the passive without ever telling who is
doing the action simply by leaving out the prepositional phrase (“by
me”). That is to say, the passive allows us to obscure or omit important
details.
Let’s look at another example to see where confusion can occur.
“The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed.”
Here, you are not explaining who is doing what, which could cause
confusion. Did the interviewer audio-record and then transcribe the
audio-recording him or herself, or did the interviewer use a third
party? This could be important for someone especially concerned with
confidentiality. Even with steps not at all involving confidentiality, a
fellow researcher may want to replicate the study and knowing who did
what, how, and when will then be important.
Ethical Considerations
Let’s look at another example to see where ethical considerations enter the picture.
“The surveys were given to the respondents.”
This sentence raises all the concerns about clarity and one more:
agency. When you use the passive to talk about people who are
participating in a study, you are treating them like objects because
they have action done TO them rather than doing the action themselves.
This is problematic.
In recent decades, social scientists have worked hard to protect
research participants’ privacy and mental and physical well-being
(through informed consent, among other measures). Therefore, when you
discuss study participants, you want to give them as much agency as
possible. The APA style manual explains this in greater detail in
Guideline 3 (Acknowledge Participation) of the Guidelines for Reducing
Bias (73).
For example, instead of writing, “The listening task was administered
to the participants,” you should say, “The participants completed the
listening task.”
What does all this mean? What should you do?
1. In all sections, except perhaps the Method section, use the active
voice and the first person (I/we) to describe your own actions and the
third to describe the actions of other researchers (e.g., in the
Literature Review section).
2. If you use the passive voice in the Method section, do so as
little as possible and do not do so when you are talking about
participants’ actions.
3. If you are not comfortable using the first person for yourself (or
your research team) or if other standards conflict, consider using the
third person for you or your research team (“the present
researcher(s)”).
