College > High School ..... papers

In high school papers that were written more on a book or play, and not mainly about research or scholarly information. High school professors wanted to break the bad habits of putting opinions in everything, “I didn’t like the book because I…” sounds very childish.  Having the opportunity to use “I” in a paper seems like I’m breaking all the rules. For four years using “I” was frowned upon and trying to get myself back into when and where it is appropriate to use it is like trying to relearn everything I have already learned.  This paper has definitely helped me understand when it is appropriate due to all the examples the author used.

This paper helped me figure out when and when not to use “I” because with all the papers thus far has had “I” eliminated. The hardest part is second guessing myself when I do use “I” because it looks so out of place now in my papers.  Having to determine when to add in an “I” to make the sentence flow is going to be the toughest part of using it in qualitative research. Qualitative research needs to be done objectively not subjectively due to the fact that it needs to be without cause. If you put an “I” for everything that happened the research would take a back seat to what was concluded.  The use of “I” will help if you were summarizing multiple papers or research to keep the names and findings straight. The author makes a good statement “By putting themselves in the picture, Kraemer and Marquez acknowledge themselves as variables in their own study—a key aspect of any scientific methodology, and especially those which involve human subjects and use interviews to collect data.” Because trying to make a connection between topics and trying to keep your topic’s straight the use of “I” is beneficial.

The use of “I” in a research paper would be torturous due to the fact that using “I” is not formal and puts too much emphasis on who is doing the research. When conducting research human bias and opinion needs to be eliminated from the paper because the findings need to stand alone without the backing of the researcher. Just because a researcher says something or finds something doesn’t always mean that it’s the truth. If a researcher goes into the research with a mindset on finding “X” then they will find any way possible to find “X” but when they go into the experiment with an open mind, the real research comes out.  As the author says that” They want to make sure that you don’t rely on personal experiences or perspectives where you should be providing concrete, researched support for your arguments.”

I have actually taken page 189 and saved it on when and when not to use “I” as a quick reference guide. Having it handy will help me understand when I can use “I” and when the author needs to find another way of stating something.