using we and i in an essay

• Tips & Guides

How To Avoid Using “We,” “You,” And “I” in an Essay

• Posted on October 27, 2022 October 27, 2022

Maintaining a formal voice while writing academic essays and papers is essential to sound objective. 

One of the main rules of academic or formal writing is to avoid first-person pronouns like “we,” “you,” and “I.” These words pull focus away from the topic and shift it to the speaker – the opposite of your goal.

While it may seem difficult at first, some tricks can help you avoid personal language and keep a professional tone.

Let’s learn how to avoid using “we” in an essay.

What Is a Personal Pronoun?

Pronouns are words used to refer to a noun indirectly. Examples include “he,” “his,” “her,” and “hers.” Any time you refer to a noun – whether a person, object, or animal – without using its name, you use a pronoun.

Personal pronouns are a type of pronoun. A personal pronoun is a pronoun you use whenever you directly refer to the subject of the sentence. 

Take the following short paragraph as an example:

“Mr. Smith told the class yesterday to work on our essays. Mr. Smith also said that Mr. Smith lost Mr. Smith’s laptop in the lunchroom.”

The above sentence contains no pronouns at all. There are three places where you would insert a pronoun, but only two where you would put a personal pronoun. See the revised sentence below:

“Mr. Smith told the class yesterday to work on our essays. He also said that he lost his laptop in the lunchroom.”

“He” is a personal pronoun because we are talking directly about Mr. Smith. “His” is not a personal pronoun (it’s a possessive pronoun) because we are not speaking directly about Mr. Smith. Rather, we are talking about Mr. Smith’s laptop.

If later on you talk about Mr. Smith’s laptop, you may say:

“Mr. Smith found it in his car, not the lunchroom!” 

In this case, “it” is a personal pronoun because in this point of view we are making a reference to the laptop directly and not as something owned by Mr. Smith.

Why Avoid Personal Pronouns in Essay Writing

We’re teaching you how to avoid using “I” in writing, but why is this necessary? Academic writing aims to focus on a clear topic, sound objective, and paint the writer as a source of authority. Word choice can significantly impact your success in achieving these goals.

Writing that uses personal pronouns can unintentionally shift the reader’s focus onto the writer, pulling their focus away from the topic at hand.

Personal pronouns may also make your work seem less objective. 

One of the most challenging parts of essay writing is learning which words to avoid and how to avoid them. Fortunately, following a few simple tricks, you can master the English Language and write like a pro in no time.

Alternatives To Using Personal Pronouns

How to not use “I” in a paper? What are the alternatives? There are many ways to avoid the use of personal pronouns in academic writing. By shifting your word choice and sentence structure, you can keep the overall meaning of your sentences while re-shaping your tone.

Utilize Passive Voice

In conventional writing, students are taught to avoid the passive voice as much as possible, but it can be an excellent way to avoid first-person pronouns in academic writing.

You can use the passive voice to avoid using pronouns. Take this sentence, for example:

“ We used 150 ml of HCl for the experiment.”

Instead of using “we” and the active voice, you can use a passive voice without a pronoun. The sentence above becomes:

“150 ml of HCl were used for the experiment.” 

Using the passive voice removes your team from the experiment and makes your work sound more objective.

Take a Third-Person Perspective

Another answer to “how to avoid using ‘we’ in an essay?” is the use of a third-person perspective. Changing the perspective is a good way to take first-person pronouns out of a sentence. A third-person point of view will not use any first-person pronouns because the information is not given from the speaker’s perspective.

A third-person sentence is spoken entirely about the subject where the speaker is outside of the sentence.

Take a look at the sentence below:

“In this article you will learn about formal writing.”

The perspective in that sentence is second person, and it uses the personal pronoun “you.” You can change this sentence to sound more objective by using third-person pronouns:

“In this article the reader will learn about formal writing.”

The use of a third-person point of view makes the second sentence sound more academic and confident. Second-person pronouns, like those used in the first sentence, sound less formal and objective.

Be Specific With Word Choice

You can avoid first-personal pronouns by choosing your words carefully. Often, you may find that you are inserting unnecessary nouns into your work. 

Take the following sentence as an example:

“ My research shows the students did poorly on the test.”

In this case, the first-person pronoun ‘my’ can be entirely cut out from the sentence. It then becomes:

“Research shows the students did poorly on the test.”

The second sentence is more succinct and sounds more authoritative without changing the sentence structure.

You should also make sure to watch out for the improper use of adverbs and nouns. Being careful with your word choice regarding nouns, adverbs, verbs, and adjectives can help mitigate your use of personal pronouns. 

“They bravely started the French revolution in 1789.” 

While this sentence might be fine in a story about the revolution, an essay or academic piece should only focus on the facts. The world ‘bravely’ is a good indicator that you are inserting unnecessary personal pronouns into your work.

We can revise this sentence into:

“The French revolution started in 1789.” 

Avoid adverbs (adjectives that describe verbs), and you will find that you avoid personal pronouns by default.

Closing Thoughts

In academic writing, It is crucial to sound objective and focus on the topic. Using personal pronouns pulls the focus away from the subject and makes writing sound subjective.

Hopefully, this article has helped you learn how to avoid using “we” in an essay.

When working on any formal writing assignment, avoid personal pronouns and informal language as much as possible.

While getting the hang of academic writing, you will likely make some mistakes, so revising is vital. Always double-check for personal pronouns, plagiarism , spelling mistakes, and correctly cited pieces. 

 You can prevent and correct mistakes using a plagiarism checker at any time, completely for free.

Quetext is a platform that helps you with all those tasks. Check out all resources that are available to you today.

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• Writing Tips

Can You Use I or We in a Research Paper?

4-minute read

• 11th July 2023

Writing in the first person, or using I and we pronouns, has traditionally been frowned upon in academic writing . But despite this long-standing norm, writing in the first person isn’t actually prohibited. In fact, it’s becoming more acceptable – even in research papers.

 If you’re wondering whether you can use I (or we ) in your research paper, you should check with your institution first and foremost. Many schools have rules regarding first-person use. If it’s up to you, though, we still recommend some guidelines. Check out our tips below!

When Is It Most Acceptable to Write in the First Person?

Certain sections of your paper are more conducive to writing in the first person. Typically, the first person makes sense in the abstract, introduction, discussion, and conclusion sections. You should still limit your use of I and we , though, or your essay may start to sound like a personal narrative .

 Using first-person pronouns is most useful and acceptable in the following circumstances.

When doing so removes the passive voice and adds flow

Sometimes, writers have to bend over backward just to avoid using the first person, often producing clunky sentences and a lot of passive voice constructions. The first person can remedy this. For example: 

Both sentences are fine, but the second one flows better and is easier to read.

When doing so differentiates between your research and other literature

When discussing literature from other researchers and authors, you might be comparing it with your own findings or hypotheses . Using the first person can help clarify that you are engaging in such a comparison. For example: 

 In the first sentence, using “the author” to avoid the first person creates ambiguity. The second sentence prevents misinterpretation.

When doing so allows you to express your interest in the subject

In some instances, you may need to provide background for why you’re researching your topic. This information may include your personal interest in or experience with the subject, both of which are easier to express using first-person pronouns. For example:

Expressing personal experiences and viewpoints isn’t always a good idea in research papers. When it’s appropriate to do so, though, just make sure you don’t overuse the first person.

When to Avoid Writing in the First Person

It’s usually a good idea to stick to the third person in the methods and results sections of your research paper. Additionally, be careful not to use the first person when:

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●  It makes your findings seem like personal observations rather than factual results.

●  It removes objectivity and implies that the writing may be biased .

●  It appears in phrases such as I think or I believe , which can weaken your writing.

Keeping Your Writing Formal and Objective

Using the first person while maintaining a formal tone can be tricky, but keeping a few tips in mind can help you strike a balance. The important thing is to make sure the tone isn’t too conversational.

 To achieve this, avoid referring to the readers, such as with the second-person you . Use we and us only when referring to yourself and the other authors/researchers involved in the paper, not the audience.

It’s becoming more acceptable in the academic world to use first-person pronouns such as we and I in research papers. But make sure you check with your instructor or institution first because they may have strict rules regarding this practice.

 If you do decide to use the first person, make sure you do so effectively by following the tips we’ve laid out in this guide. And once you’ve written a draft, send us a copy! Our expert proofreaders and editors will be happy to check your grammar, spelling, word choice, references, tone, and more. Submit a 500-word sample today!

Is it ever acceptable to use I or we in a research paper?

In some instances, using first-person pronouns can help you to establish credibility, add clarity, and make the writing easier to read.

How can I avoid using I in my writing?

Writing in the passive voice can help you to avoid using the first person.

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Using “I” in Academic Writing

Traditionally, some fields have frowned on the use of the first-person singular in an academic essay and others have encouraged that use, and both the frowning and the encouraging persist today—and there are good reasons for both positions (see “Should I”).

I recommend that you not look on the question of using “I” in an academic paper as a matter of a rule to follow, as part of a political agenda (see webb), or even as the need to create a strategy to avoid falling into Scylla-or-Charybdis error. Let the first-person singular be, instead, a tool that you take out when you think it’s needed and that you leave in the toolbox when you think it’s not.

Examples of When “I” May Be Needed

• You are narrating how you made a discovery, and the process of your discovering is important or at the very least entertaining.
• You are describing how you teach something and how your students have responded or respond.
• You disagree with another scholar and want to stress that you are not waving the banner of absolute truth.
• You need “I” for rhetorical effect, to be clear, simple, or direct.

Examples of When “I” Should Be Given a Rest

• It’s off-putting to readers, generally, when “I” appears too often. You may not feel one bit modest, but remember the advice of Benjamin Franklin, still excellent, on the wisdom of preserving the semblance of modesty when your purpose is to convince others.
• You are the author of your paper, so if an opinion is expressed in it, it is usually clear that this opinion is yours. You don’t have to add a phrase like, “I believe” or “it seems to me.”

Works Cited

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin . Project Gutenberg , 28 Dec. 2006, www.gutenberg.org/app/uploads/sites/3/20203/20203-h/20203-h.htm#I.

“Should I Use “I”?” The Writing Center at UNC—Chapel Hill , writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/should-i-use-i/.

webb, Christine. “The Use of the First Person in Academic Writing: Objectivity, Language, and Gatekeeping.” ResearchGate , July 1992, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.1992.tb01974.x.

J.S.Beniwal 05 August 2017 AT 09:08 AM

I have borrowed MLA only yesterday, did my MAEnglish in May 2017.MLA is of immense help for scholars.An overview of the book really enlightened​ me.I should have read it at bachelor's degree level.

Your e-mail address will not be published

Dr. Raymond Harter 25 September 2017 AT 02:09 PM

I discourage the use of "I" in essays for undergraduates to reinforce a conversational tone and to "self-recognize" the writer as an authority or at least a thorough researcher. Writing a play is different than an essay with a purpose.

Osayimwense Osa 22 March 2023 AT 05:03 PM

When a student or writer is strongly and passionately interested in his or her stance and argument to persuade his or her audience, the use of personal pronoun srenghtens his or her passion for the subject. This passion should be clear in his/her expression. However, I encourage the use of the first-person, I, sparingly -- only when and where absolutely necessary.

Eleanor 25 March 2023 AT 04:03 PM

I once had a student use the word "eye" when writing about how to use pronouns. Her peers did not catch it. I made comments, but I think she never understood what eye was saying!

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Table of Contents

Collaboration, information literacy, writing process, using first person in an academic essay: when is it okay.

• CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Jenna Pack Sheffield

Related Concepts: Academic Writing – How to Write for the Academic Community ; First-Person Point of View ; Rhetorical Analysis; Rhetorical Stance ; The First Person ; Voice

In order to determine whether or not you can speak or write from the first-person point of view, you need to engage in rhetorical analysis. You need to question whether your audience values and accepts the first person as a legitimate rhetorical stance. Source:Many times, high school students are told not to use first person (“I,” “we,” “my,” “us,” and so forth) in their essays. As a college student, you should realize that this is a rule that can and should be broken—at the right time, of course.

By now, you’ve probably written a personal essay, memoir, or narrative that used first person. After all, how could you write a personal essay about yourself, for instance, without using the dreaded “I” word?

However, academic essays differ from personal essays; they are typically researched and use a formal tone . Because of these differences, when students write an academic essay, they quickly shy away from first person because of what they have been told in high school or because they believe that first person feels too informal for an intellectual, researched text. While first person can definitely be overused in academic essays (which is likely why your teachers tell you not to use it), there are moments in a paper when it is not only appropriate, but also more effective and/or persuasive to use first person. The following are a few instances in which it is appropriate to use first person in an academic essay:

• Including a personal anecdote: You have more than likely been told that you need a strong “hook” to draw your readers in during an introduction. Sometimes, the best hook is a personal anecdote, or a short amusing story about yourself. In this situation, it would seem unnatural not to use first-person pronouns such as “I” and “myself.” Your readers will appreciate the personal touch and will want to keep reading! (For more information about incorporating personal anecdotes into your writing, see “ Employing Narrative in an Essay .”)
• Establishing your credibility ( ethos ): Ethos is a term stemming back to Ancient Greece that essentially means “character” in the sense of trustworthiness or credibility. A writer can establish her ethos by convincing the reader that she is trustworthy source. Oftentimes, the best way to do that is to get personal—tell the reader a little bit about yourself. (For more information about ethos, see “ Ethos .”)For instance, let’s say you are writing an essay arguing that dance is a sport. Using the occasional personal pronoun to let your audience know that you, in fact, are a classically trained dancer—and have the muscles and scars to prove it—goes a long way in establishing your credibility and proving your argument. And this use of first person will not distract or annoy your readers because it is purposeful.
• Clarifying passive constructions : Often, when writers try to avoid using first person in essays, they end up creating confusing, passive sentences . For instance, let’s say I am writing an essay about different word processing technologies, and I want to make the point that I am using Microsoft Word to write this essay. If I tried to avoid first-person pronouns, my sentence might read: “Right now, this essay is being written in Microsoft Word.” While this sentence is not wrong, it is what we call passive—the subject of the sentence is being acted upon because there is no one performing the action. To most people, this sentence sounds better: “Right now, I am writing this essay in Microsoft Word.” Do you see the difference? In this case, using first person makes your writing clearer.
• Stating your position in relation to others: Sometimes, especially in an argumentative essay, it is necessary to state your opinion on the topic . Readers want to know where you stand, and it is sometimes helpful to assert yourself by putting your own opinions into the essay. You can imagine the passive sentences (see above) that might occur if you try to state your argument without using the word “I.” The key here is to use first person sparingly. Use personal pronouns enough to get your point across clearly without inundating your readers with this language.

Now, the above list is certainly not exhaustive. The best thing to do is to use your good judgment, and you can always check with your instructor if you are unsure of his or her perspective on the issue. Ultimately, if you feel that using first person has a purpose or will have a strategic effect on your audience, then it is probably fine to use first-person pronouns. Just be sure not to overuse this language, at the risk of sounding narcissistic, self-centered, or unaware of others’ opinions on a topic.

Recommended Readings:

• A Synthesis of Professor Perspectives on Using First and Third Person in Academic Writing
• Finding the Bunny: How to Make a Personal Connection to Your Writing
• First-Person Point of View

Brevity – Say More with Less

Clarity (in Speech and Writing)

Coherence – How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow – How to Create Flow in Writing

Inclusivity – Inclusive Language

The Elements of Style – The DNA of Powerful Writing

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Can You Use First-Person Pronouns (I/we) in a Research Paper?

Research writers frequently wonder whether the first person can be used in academic and scientific writing. In truth, for generations, we’ve been discouraged from using “I” and “we” in academic writing simply due to old habits. That’s right—there’s no reason why you can’t use these words! In fact, the academic community used first-person pronouns until the 1920s, when the third person and passive-voice constructions (that is, “boring” writing) were adopted–prominently expressed, for example, in Strunk and White’s classic writing manual “Elements of Style” first published in 1918, that advised writers to place themselves “in the background” and not draw attention to themselves.

In recent decades, however, changing attitudes about the first person in academic writing has led to a paradigm shift, and we have, however, we’ve shifted back to producing active and engaging prose that incorporates the first person.

Can You Use “I” in a Research Paper?

However, “I” and “we” still have some generally accepted pronoun rules writers should follow. For example, the first person is more likely used in the abstract , Introduction section , Discussion section , and Conclusion section of an academic paper while the third person and passive constructions are found in the Methods section and Results section .

In this article, we discuss when you should avoid personal pronouns and when they may enhance your writing.

It’s Okay to Use First-Person Pronouns to:

• clarify meaning by eliminating passive voice constructions;
• establish authority and credibility (e.g., assert ethos, the Aristotelian rhetorical term referring to the personal character);
• express interest in a subject matter (typically found in rapid correspondence);
• establish personal connections with readers, particularly regarding anecdotal or hypothetical situations (common in philosophy, religion, and similar fields, particularly to explore how certain concepts might impact personal life. Additionally, artistic disciplines may also encourage personal perspectives more than other subjects);
• to emphasize or distinguish your perspective while discussing existing literature; and
• to create a conversational tone (rare in academic writing).

The First Person Should Be Avoided When:

• doing so would remove objectivity and give the impression that results or observations are unique to your perspective;
• you wish to maintain an objective tone that would suggest your study minimized biases as best as possible; and
• expressing your thoughts generally (phrases like “I think” are unnecessary because any statement that isn’t cited should be yours).

Usage Examples

The following examples compare the impact of using and avoiding first-person pronouns.

Example 1 (First Person Preferred):

To understand the effects of global warming on coastal regions,  changes in sea levels, storm surge occurrences and precipitation amounts  were examined .

[Note: When a long phrase acts as the subject of a passive-voice construction, the sentence becomes difficult to digest. Additionally, since the author(s) conducted the research, it would be clearer to specifically mention them when discussing the focus of a project.]

We examined  changes in sea levels, storm surge occurrences, and precipitation amounts to understand how global warming impacts coastal regions.

[Note: When describing the focus of a research project, authors often replace “we” with phrases such as “this study” or “this paper.” “We,” however, is acceptable in this context, including for scientific disciplines. In fact, papers published the vast majority of scientific journals these days use “we” to establish an active voice.   Be careful when using “this study” or “this paper” with verbs that clearly couldn’t have performed the action.   For example, “we attempt to demonstrate” works, but “the study attempts to demonstrate” does not; the study is not a person.]

Example 2 (First Person Discouraged):

From the various data points  we have received ,  we observed  that higher frequencies of runoffs from heavy rainfall have occurred in coastal regions where temperatures have increased by at least 0.9°C.

[Note: Introducing personal pronouns when discussing results raises questions regarding the reproducibility of a study. However, mathematics fields generally tolerate phrases such as “in X example, we see…”]

Coastal regions  with temperature increases averaging more than 0.9°C  experienced  higher frequencies of runoffs from heavy rainfall.

[Note: We removed the passive voice and maintained objectivity and assertiveness by specifically identifying the cause-and-effect elements as the actor and recipient of the main action verb. Additionally, in this version, the results appear independent of any person’s perspective.] 

Example 3 (First Person Preferred):

In contrast to the study by Jones et al. (2001), which suggests that milk consumption is safe for adults, the Miller study (2005) revealed the potential hazards of ingesting milk.  The authors confirm  this latter finding.

[Note: “Authors” in the last sentence above is unclear. Does the term refer to Jones et al., Miller, or the authors of the current paper?]

In contrast to the study by Jones et al. (2001), which suggests that milk consumption is safe for adults, the Miller study (2005) revealed the potential hazards of ingesting milk.  We confirm  this latter finding.

[Note: By using “we,” this sentence clarifies the actor and emphasizes the significance of the recent findings reported in this paper. Indeed, “I” and “we” are acceptable in most scientific fields to compare an author’s works with other researchers’ publications. The APA encourages using personal pronouns for this context. The social sciences broaden this scope to allow discussion of personal perspectives, irrespective of comparisons to other literature.]

Other Tips about Using Personal Pronouns

• Avoid starting a sentence with personal pronouns. The beginning of a sentence is a noticeable position that draws readers’ attention. Thus, using personal pronouns as the first one or two words of a sentence will draw unnecessary attention to them (unless, of course, that was your intent).
• Be careful how you define “we.” It should only refer to the authors and never the audience unless your intention is to write a conversational piece rather than a scholarly document! After all, the readers were not involved in analyzing or formulating the conclusions presented in your paper (although, we note that the point of your paper is to persuade readers to reach the same conclusions you did). While this is not a hard-and-fast rule, if you do want to use “we” to refer to a larger class of people, clearly define the term “we” in the sentence. For example, “As researchers, we frequently question…”
• First-person writing is becoming more acceptable under Modern English usage standards; however, the second-person pronoun “you” is still generally unacceptable because it is too casual for academic writing.
• Take all of the above notes with a grain of salt. That is,  double-check your institution or target journal’s author guidelines .  Some organizations may prohibit the use of personal pronouns.
• As an extra tip, before submission, you should always read through the most recent issues of a journal to get a better sense of the editors’ preferred writing styles and conventions.

Wordvice Resources

For more general advice on how to use active and passive voice in research papers, on how to paraphrase , or for a list of useful phrases for academic writing , head over to the Wordvice Academic Resources pages . And for more professional proofreading services , visit our Academic Editing and P aper Editing Services pages.

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Can I use 'we' and 'I' in my essay? Introducing corpus linguistics

This page was published over 6 years ago. Please be aware that due to the passage of time, the information provided on this page may be out of date or otherwise inaccurate, and any views or opinions expressed may no longer be relevant. Some technical elements such as audio-visual and interactive media may no longer work. For more detail, see how we deal with older content .

What is a corpus?

But what exactly is meant by a corpus? A corpus (plural corpora) is basically a collection of texts, selected and organised in a principled way, and stored on a computer so that you can search easily. It could be anything from a few hundred words (e.g. a collection of your Facebook status updates) or several billion words (e.g. corpora compiled from trawling webpages).

You can search corpora that already exist, using a 'concordancer' or other types of software, or you could even build your own corpus if you want to investigate a particular type of text and you can't find an existing corpus.

Googlefight

We're all now used to searching large collections of texts quickly. Every time you use a search engine you're effectively trawling through vast numbers of entries.

So why don't linguists just use Google as a large corpus to find out how language works? Searching the web works as a very rough and ready way of quickly getting a sense of how language items are used.

You might be interested in trying a 'Google fight' to resolve disputes over how frequently two words or phrases are used! Go to www.googlefight.com . Here's what I found when I searched for 'we' and 'I':

So 'I' wins the Googlefight. But what does this actually mean?

If you search the web using Google or another search engine, your search will include all sorts of webpages – and duplicates of webpages. You also don't have any idea about the kinds of text the word appears in or about the other words your search item is used with (the 'co-text').

If we want to know whether 'we' is more common than 'I' in student essays, for example, looking on Google wouldn't be a very good way to go about it. And if we wanted to know if one group of students (for example Engineering students) use 'we' in their academic writing more than another group (such as History students) then an internet search wouldn't be any help at all.

To answer the question in the title to this article, we'd get a more accurate result by searching a collection of student writing such as the British Academic Written English or 'BAWE' corpus (pronounced 'boar' like the animal).

This corpus contains not just essays but also lab reports, case studies, literature reviews, and other types of writing that undergraduate and masters students do at university. Here I've used the free site Sketch Engine Open and I've searched the whole BAWE corpus:

From this screenshot, we can see that BAWE contains 15,718 instances of 'we' (or 1,885 per million words). A similar search for 'I' reveals that there are 13,069 instances in the whole student corpus (or 1,568 per million words).

So in the BAWE corpus, 'we' is more frequent than 'I'; this is the opposite result to Googlefight. Searching a corpus of student writing gives us results from this type of text and not from all texts found on the web.

A concordancer (unlike Googlefight) also shows us the co-text, that is, the words appearing before and after our search term (in this case 'we'). Another piece of software that shows us the co-text to 'I' and 'we' is the 'Wordtree'. Below you can see a search for words occurring after 'we'. You can access the Wordtree online .

So, is 'we' or 'I' more common in essay-writing? The answer overall from our search of the BAWE corpus is that 'we' is more common. But to give a more useful and accurate answer, you might want to also look at particular disciplines such as English Literature or Biological Sciences.

And you might also want to consider whether you're writing an 'essay' or a 'literature review' or a 'lab report'.

But in overall student writing 'we' takes first place!

Follow-on links

Using sketch engine to explore the bawe corpus.

The free version of Sketch Engine gives access to several corpora, including BAWE. From the homepage of Sketch Engine, choose a corpus, then click ‘concordance’ and type a word or phrase in the text box. This will produce a list of concordance lines which can then be sorted. The ‘help’ function gives very clear guidance for more advanced searches.

Reading more about BAWE

You can find out more about the British Academic Written English corpus (BAWE) from the BAWE website .

Corpus linguistics resources

For useful links, look at this site . Click on ‘CBL Links’ for information on corpora, software and courses.

You could also look for free, short courses on Futurelearn, such as The University of Lancaster's Corpus Linguistics

And from The Open University...

• You might like The Open University course Exploring English Grammar
• Try a free sample of English Grammar In Context on OpenLearn
• If you're a bit more advanced, consider the postgraduate course Language, literacy and learning in the contemporary world - there's an OpenLearn course sample on learning a second language

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Ratings & comments, share this free course, copyright information, publication details.

• Originally published: Monday, 20 January 2014
• Body text - Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 : The Open University
• Image 'Should this be I or should this be we?' - Emanuele Rosso under CC-BY-NC-ND licence under Creative-Commons license
• Image 'A screengrab comparing the number of returns for I against We on Google' - Copyright: Googlefight
• Image 'Screengrab showing instances of the word 'we' in the British Academic Written English corpus as returned by SketchEngine' - Copyright: Sketchengine
• Image 'A screengrab from Wordtree showing the words which follow we' - Copyright: Wordtree

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We should use ‘I’ more in academic writing – there is benefit to first-person perspective

Lecturer in Critical Thinking; Curriculum Director, UQ Critical Thinking Project, The University of Queensland

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Peter Ellerton is affiliated with the Centre for Critical and Creative Thinking. He is a Fellow of the Rationalist Society of Australia.

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The use of the word “I” in academic writing, that is writing in the first person , has a troublesome history. Some say it makes writing too subjective, others that it’s essential for accuracy.

This is reflected in how students, particularly in secondary schools, are trained to write. Teachers I work with are often surprised that I advocate, at times, invoking the first person in essays or other assessment in their subject areas.

In academic writing the role of the author is to explain their argument dispassionately and objectively. The author’s personal opinion in such endeavours is neither here nor there.

As noted in Strunk and White’s highly influential Elements of Style – (first published in 1959) the writer is encouraged to place themselves in the background.

Write in a way that draws the reader’s attention to the sense and substance of the writing, rather than to the mood and temper of the author.

This all seems very reasonable and scholarly. The move towards including the first person perspective, however, is becoming more acceptable in academia.

There are times when invoking the first person is more meaningful and even rigorous than not. I will give three categories in which first person academic writing is more effective than using the third person.

1. Where an academic is offering their personal view or argument

Above, I could have said “there are three categories” rather than “I will give three categories”. The former makes a claim of discovering some objective fact. The latter, a more intellectually honest and accountable approach, is me offering my interpretation.

I could also say “three categories are apparent”, but that is ignoring the fact it is apparent to me . It would be an attempt to grant too much objectivity to a position than it deserves.

In a similar vein, statements such as “it can be argued” or “it was decided”, using the passive voice, avoid responsibility. It is much better to say “I will argue that” or “we decided that” and then go on to prosecute the argument or justify the decision.

Taking responsibility for our stances and reasoning is important culturally as well as academically. In a participatory democracy, we are expected to be accountable for our ideas and choices. It is also a stand against the kinds of anonymous assertions that easily proliferate via fake and unnamed social media accounts.

Read more: Post-truth politics and why the antidote isn't simply 'fact-checking' and truth

It’s worth noting that Nature – arguably one of the world’s best science journals – prefers authors to selectively avoid the passive voice. Its writing guidelines note:

Nature journals prefer authors to write in the active voice (“we performed the experiment…”) as experience has shown that readers find concepts and results to be conveyed more clearly if written directly.

2. Where the author’s perspective is part of the analysis

Some disciplines, such as anthropology , recognise that who is doing the research and why they are doing it ought to be overtly present in their presentation of it.

Removing the author’s presence can allow important cultural or other perspectives held by the author to remain unexamined. This can lead to the so-called crisis of representation , in which the interpretation of texts and other cultural artefacts is removed from any interpretive stance of the author.

This gives a false impression of objectivity. As the philosopher Thomas Nagel notes, there is no “ view from nowhere ”.

Philosophy commonly invokes the first person position, too. Rene Descartes famously inferred “I think therefore I am” ( cogito ergo sum ). But his use of the first person in Meditations on First Philosophy was not simply an account of his own introspection. It was also an invitation to the reader to think for themselves.

3. Where the author wants to show their reasoning

The third case is especially interesting in education.

I tell students of science, critical thinking and philosophy that a phrase guaranteed to raise my hackles is “I strongly believe …”. In terms of being rationally persuasive, this is not relevant unless they then go on tell me why they believe it. I want to know what and how they are thinking.

To make their thinking most clearly an object of my study, I need them to make themselves the subjects of their writing.

I prefer students to write something like “I am not convinced by Dawson’s argument because…” rather than “Dawson’s argument is opposed by DeVries, who says …”. I want to understand their thinking not just use the argument of DeVries.

Read more: Thinking about thinking helps kids learn. How can we teach critical thinking?

Of course I would hope they do engage with DeVries, but then I’d want them to say which argument they find more convincing and what their own reasons were for being convinced.

Just stating Devries’ objection is good analysis, but we also need students to evaluate and justify, and it is here that the first person position is most useful.

It is not always accurate to say a piece is written in the first or third person. There are reasons to invoke the first person position at times and reasons not to. An essay in which it is used once should not mean we think of the whole essay as from the first person perspective.

We need to be more nuanced about how we approach this issue and appreciate when authors should “place themselves in the background” and when their voice matters.

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10 Better Ways To Say “Our” And “We” In Formal Essays

When writing formal essays, there are rules of English grammar that we need to follow. Sometimes, we need to change perspective, and instead of writing in the first person and saying ‘we,’ we need to stay in the third person. So, what are the best alternatives to saying ‘we?’

There are many alternatives to saying ‘we.’ The most preferred alternatives we use are ‘they,’ ‘the group,’ and ‘the team.’ These three alternatives are the more general alternatives that seem to be applicable in almost all contexts, especially ‘they’ as we simply remove ourselves from the narrative by using it.

‘They’ is the most general and preferred alternative to ‘we’ and ‘us.’ By using ‘they,’ we replace our first-person pronoun with a third-person pronoun that simply excludes ourselves from the narrative, making the essay sound more objective and formal. ‘They’ is also a pronoun that is applicable in all contexts.

Take a look at these examples below.

• Original: Humans are incredible creatures. We have so much creativity.
• Alternative: Humans are incredible creatures. They have so much creativity.
• Original: Our group will report tomorrow. We will talk about this month’s sales.
• Alternative: Their group will report tomorrow. They will talk about this month’s sales.
• Original: We simply hope the audience learned something from us.
• Alternative: They simply hope the audience learned something from them.
• Original: We’ve done our research, but we don’t have precise predictions yet.
• Alternative: They’ve done their research, but they don’t have precise predictions yet.

‘The group’ is a good, general alternative to saying ‘we’ in formal essays. However, this alternative specifies that we refer to ‘we’ as a group of individuals. Therefore, this alternative does not apply to populations of large scale like nations, humans, or races.

• Original: We were able to conclude the following findings.
• Alternative: The group was able to conclude the following findings.
• Original: We could not administer the test today due to certain circumstances.
• Alternative: The group could not administer the test today due to certain circumstances?
• Original: Our experimental set-ups did not yield any significant difference.
• Alternative: The group’s experimental set-ups did not yield any significant difference.
• Original: It is beneficial for us if more people participate in the study.
• Alternative: It is beneficial for the group if more people participate in the study.

‘The team’ is synonymous with ‘the group.’ It is another alternative to saying ‘we’ but implies that ‘we’ refers to a team or a group of individuals that are together for the same purpose. However, ‘the team’ does not apply to bigger populations, like an entire race or human population.

• Original: We are composed of individuals with a passion for learning.
• Alternative: The team is composed of individuals with a passion for learning.
• Original: The results of our work do not define our identity.
• Alternative: The results of the team’s work do not define the team’s identity.
• Original: We poured our best efforts into this project.
• Alternative: The team poured their best efforts into this project.
• Original: We do not tolerate any misconduct and violent behavior.
• Alternative: The team does not tolerate any misconduct and violent behavior.

‘The body’ is another alternative for saying ‘we’ in formal essays. We mostly use ‘body’ when referring to large groups of individuals like the audience, spectators, or students. However, we do not use it for extreme scales such as a race population, and the like.

• Original: We didn’t find the presentation interesting.
• Alternative: The body didn’t find the presentation interesting.
• Original: We have a lot of questions we want to ask the speaker after the talk.
• Alternative: The body has a lot of questions they want to ask the speaker after the talk.
• Original: We listened to different opinions on the issue.
• Alternative: The body listened to different opinions on the issue.
• Original: We were only able to watch the latter part of the program.
• Alternative: The body was only able to watch the latter part of the program.

The Organization

‘The organization’ is a more specific alternative for ‘we.’ In using this alternative, we refer to ‘we’ as an organization in the context we are talking or writing. This alternative is most applicable for organization-related things. However, do not use this alternative if the context does not involve an organization.

• Original: We will push through with the planned fundraising project.
• Alternative: The organization will push through with the planned fundraising project.
• Original: Our accomplishments this year are something we should be proud of.
• Alternative: The organization’s accomplishments this year are something they should be proud of.
• Original: We plan on collaborating with other organizations to plan the event.
• Alternative: The organization plans on collaborating with other organizations to plan the event.
• Original: We only accept people who have a passion for our advocacy.
• Alternative: The organization only accepts people who have a passion for their advocacy.

The Researchers

‘The researchers’ is a specific alternative to ‘we’ that we only use when we refer to ‘we’ as a group of researchers. We mostly use this alternative in writing research papers that need to be in the third-person perspective. However, we don’t use this alternative outside the scope of research.

• Original: We administered a total of three set-ups for the study.
• Alternative: The researchers administered a total of three set-ups for the study.
• Original: We encountered circumstances that provided the limitations of our research.
• Alternative: The researchers encountered circumstances that provided the limitations of their research.
• Original: After three months of observation, our conclusion is as follows .
• Alternative: After three months of observation, the researchers’ conclusion is as follows.
• Original: Our study would not be successful if not for the help of our research adviser.
• Alternative: The researchers’ study would not be successful if not for the help of their research adviser.

The Company

‘The company’ is another specific alternative for ‘we.’ We only use this alternative, if we are in the context that ‘we’ refers to a company. We use this mostly in business-related reports or presentations. Other than that, we don’t use this alternative for purposes that do not involve a company.

• Original: Our sales for this month are higher than last month.
• Alternative: The company’s sales for this month are higher than last month.
• Original: We only sell organic, vegan-friendly, and cruelty-free products.
• Alternative: The company only sells organic, vegan-friendly, and cruelty-free products.
• Original: We need to continuously track our demand and supply levels.
• Alternative: The company needs to continuously track its demand and supply levels.
• Original: Our vision and mission should guide us in all our endeavors.
• Alternative: The company’s vision and mission should guide the company in all its endeavors.

The Association

‘The association’ is also a specific alternative to ‘we.’ We only use this alternative if we are in a context to talk as part of or within an association. However, we do not use this alternative if we are not talking about, for, or as part of an association.

• Original: We will hold meetings every Friday to discuss weekly matters.
• Alternative: The association will hold meetings every Friday to discuss weekly matters.
• Original: Our job is to advocate and uphold democracy in our country.
• Alternative: The association’s job is to advocate and uphold democracy in our country.
• Original: Our goal directs the objectives of every endeavor we take care of.
• Alternative: The association’s goal directs the objectives of every endeavor it takes care of.
• Original: We are open to expanding the scope of its initiatives.
• Alternative: The association is open to expanding the scope of its initiatives.

‘Humans’ is a specific alternative for ‘we’ that we use only when we refer to ‘we’ as the entire human population. We cannot use ‘humans’ for small-scale groups like researchers or a company. We use this alternative only when we regard ‘we’ as the entire human population.

Take a look at the examples below.

• Original: We have so much potential inside us.
• Alternative: Humans have so much potential inside them.
• Original: Sometimes, even 24 hours isn’t enough for what we want to do in a day.
• Alternative: Sometimes, even 24 hours isn’t enough for what humans want to do in a day.
• Original: All of us have a desire to accomplish something in our lives.
• Alternative: All humans have a desire to accomplish something in their lives.
• Original: We cannot live without one another.
• Alternative: Humans cannot live without one another.

‘Society’ or ‘the society’ is an alternative to ‘we’ that we use when referring to ‘we’ as the society we are part of, or we are in. Like ‘humans,’ we do not use ‘society’ for small-scale groups, and we can only use this alternative for anything that involves our society.

• Original: We are so cruel towards others sometimes.
• Alternative: Society is so cruel towards others sometimes.
• Original: We have reached far and accomplished a lot collectively.
• Alternative: Society has reached far and accomplished a lot collectively.
• Original: Sometimes, we put up unrealistic standards for ourselves and for others.
• Alternative: Sometimes, society puts up unrealistic standards for oneself and for others.
• Original: We should start accepting everyone for who they are.
• Alternative: Society should start accepting everyone for who they are.

Is It Appropriate To Use ‘Our’ And ‘We’ In Formal Essays?

Whether to use ‘we’ or not depends on how formal you want your essay to be or how formal it needs to be. Some formal essays allow the use of first-person pronouns like ‘we’ and ‘us.’ However, omitting these pronouns do make your essays sound more professional, formal, and objective.

Martin holds a Master’s degree in Finance and International Business. He has six years of experience in professional communication with clients, executives, and colleagues. Furthermore, he has teaching experience from Aarhus University. Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. Read more about Martin here .

• Research On or In – Which Is Correct?
• What Are Power Dynamics? (Meaning & Examples)
• 10 Words For Working Together Towards A Common Goal
• Work On/In/With A Team – Preposition Guide (With Examples)

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Writing Center

Loyola university chicago, using "i" in an essay.

A common issue in essay-writing is whether to use “I”:

(E.g., “I believe that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used the rhetorical appeal of pathos to both admonish and make allies of white fellow clergymen who were not yet supporting civil rights for African Americans.”)

Some teachers will allow you to use “I” while others will not. Be sure to ask.

Try to avoid using first person verb tense unless you are writing a Personal or Response Essay describing events that happened directly to you and are informed by your unique perspective.

At the same time, remember that you are the Assumed Author. When you are not quoting, summarizing, or explaining the meaning of outside material, your reader will read the essay as your personal perspective.

With this in mind, you can correct the habit of self-attribution—writing “I think/I believe/I am of the opinion that...”—by erasing yourself from the offending passages:

Example 1 : “ I believe that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used the rhetorical appeal of pathos to both admonish and make allies of white fellow clergymen who were not yet supporting civil rights for African Americans.”

Example 2 : “ In my opinion, King Jr’s expressed respect for white clergymen as men of the cloth made it possible for them to become allies for African Americans, even as he chided them for their callous indifference to racial injustice.”

Since you are understood to be the author, state your opinion as a point-of-fact; you will go on to prove your statements in your paper, so be confident in your assertions.

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How To Avoid Using “We,” “You,” And “I” In An Essay

Formal writing requires following patterns, sometimes uncommon for the everyday communication or fiction literature style. When composing an academic paper, one wants to rely on facts, check plagiarism , cite the sources, and sound objective and neutral. It is best to avoid personal opinions in essays to achieve the latter, making the work more generalized and persuasive. How can one omit first and second person pronouns so the text still sounds natural?

What are first and second-person pronouns

First-person pronouns I, we, me, us, my, mine, our, and ours present the story from the narrator’s perspective.

I chose the research topic because it sounded relevant to my favorite subject.

We conducted an experiment to confirm or disprove our theory.

Second-person pronouns, you and your, are used to address the reader.

This article will teach you how to avoid second-person pronouns in your writing.

Why first and second-person pronouns are not recommended for academic writing

“I,” “we,” “you,” and similar pronouns shift the perspective from the subject itself to the individual, emphasizing the author of the paper or the action described in the text. It is appropriate for fiction or everyday speech but doesn’t suit academic papers, where the focus should be on the research topic. Moreover, a personal point of view makes the information sound subjective and less trustworthy, while academic writing aims to make the opposite impression. Hence, one should choose the wording carefully and omit using a first-person perspective in formal texts.

Ways to replace first and second-person pronouns in formal paper

Here are some strategies to make the paper sound more formal and professional.

Focus on the writing

Shift the perspective from the narrator to the work.

I discovered that… – The research states that…

We believe that… – The experiments confirm that…

Address the facts

Instead of framing the information with personal opinion, double-check the facts and let them speak for themselves.

I chose the topic as I believe the polar bear extinction is a burning issue… – Global polar bear numbers are projected to decline by 30% by 2050.

You can also refer to the authoritative source: According to the World Wild Fund prognosis, the global polar bear numbers are projected to decline by 30% by 2050.

Change into passive voice

In fiction, marketing, and personal communication, the active voice sounds more energetic and expressive, while the neutrality of the passive voice suits formal writing.

I conducted a survey in 2023… – The survey was conducted in 2023…

We surveyed 1000 respondents and got the statistics… – From 1000 respondents surveyed in 2023, … 

Specify the source and the audience

Be specific and name the objects or people instead of using pronouns.

From the article, you will learn how… – The article tells the reader how…/The article describes how…

We describe the process in the paper published in 2018. – The paper published in 2018 gives the details on…/Dr. Jackson and Dr. Mark refer to the fact in the paper published in 2018…

PlagiarismCheck.org is your one-stop resource for all matters related to academic writing! Try our plagiarism and Chat GPT detector , stay mistakes-free, and get more professional writing tips in our blog. Join us now!

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• How to write an argumentative essay | Examples & tips

How to Write an Argumentative Essay | Examples & Tips

Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

An argumentative essay expresses an extended argument for a particular thesis statement . The author takes a clearly defined stance on their subject and builds up an evidence-based case for it.

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Table of contents

When do you write an argumentative essay, approaches to argumentative essays, introducing your argument, the body: developing your argument, concluding your argument, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about argumentative essays.

You might be assigned an argumentative essay as a writing exercise in high school or in a composition class. The prompt will often ask you to argue for one of two positions, and may include terms like “argue” or “argument.” It will frequently take the form of a question.

The prompt may also be more open-ended in terms of the possible arguments you could make.

Argumentative writing at college level

At university, the vast majority of essays or papers you write will involve some form of argumentation. For example, both rhetorical analysis and literary analysis essays involve making arguments about texts.

In this context, you won’t necessarily be told to write an argumentative essay—but making an evidence-based argument is an essential goal of most academic writing, and this should be your default approach unless you’re told otherwise.

Examples of argumentative essay prompts

At a university level, all the prompts below imply an argumentative essay as the appropriate response.

Your research should lead you to develop a specific position on the topic. The essay then argues for that position and aims to convince the reader by presenting your evidence, evaluation and analysis.

• Don’t just list all the effects you can think of.
• Do develop a focused argument about the overall effect and why it matters, backed up by evidence from sources.
• Don’t just provide a selection of data on the measures’ effectiveness.
• Do build up your own argument about which kinds of measures have been most or least effective, and why.
• Don’t just analyze a random selection of doppelgänger characters.
• Do form an argument about specific texts, comparing and contrasting how they express their thematic concerns through doppelgänger characters.

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An argumentative essay should be objective in its approach; your arguments should rely on logic and evidence, not on exaggeration or appeals to emotion.

There are many possible approaches to argumentative essays, but there are two common models that can help you start outlining your arguments: The Toulmin model and the Rogerian model.

Toulmin arguments

The Toulmin model consists of four steps, which may be repeated as many times as necessary for the argument:

• Make a claim
• Provide the grounds (evidence) for the claim
• Explain the warrant (how the grounds support the claim)
• Discuss possible rebuttals to the claim, identifying the limits of the argument and showing that you have considered alternative perspectives

The Toulmin model is a common approach in academic essays. You don’t have to use these specific terms (grounds, warrants, rebuttals), but establishing a clear connection between your claims and the evidence supporting them is crucial in an argumentative essay.

Say you’re making an argument about the effectiveness of workplace anti-discrimination measures. You might:

• Claim that unconscious bias training does not have the desired results, and resources would be better spent on other approaches
• Cite data to support your claim
• Explain how the data indicates that the method is ineffective
• Anticipate objections to your claim based on other data, indicating whether these objections are valid, and if not, why not.

Rogerian arguments

The Rogerian model also consists of four steps you might repeat throughout your essay:

• Discuss what the opposing position gets right and why people might hold this position
• Highlight the problems with this position
• Present your own position , showing how it addresses these problems
• Suggest a possible compromise —what elements of your position would proponents of the opposing position benefit from adopting?

This model builds up a clear picture of both sides of an argument and seeks a compromise. It is particularly useful when people tend to disagree strongly on the issue discussed, allowing you to approach opposing arguments in good faith.

Say you want to argue that the internet has had a positive impact on education. You might:

• Acknowledge that students rely too much on websites like Wikipedia
• Argue that teachers view Wikipedia as more unreliable than it really is
• Suggest that Wikipedia’s system of citations can actually teach students about referencing
• Suggest critical engagement with Wikipedia as a possible assignment for teachers who are skeptical of its usefulness.

You don’t necessarily have to pick one of these models—you may even use elements of both in different parts of your essay—but it’s worth considering them if you struggle to structure your arguments.

Regardless of which approach you take, your essay should always be structured using an introduction , a body , and a conclusion .

Like other academic essays, an argumentative essay begins with an introduction . The introduction serves to capture the reader’s interest, provide background information, present your thesis statement , and (in longer essays) to summarize the structure of the body.

Hover over different parts of the example below to see how a typical introduction works.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

The body of an argumentative essay is where you develop your arguments in detail. Here you’ll present evidence, analysis, and reasoning to convince the reader that your thesis statement is true.

In the standard five-paragraph format for short essays, the body takes up three of your five paragraphs. In longer essays, it will be more paragraphs, and might be divided into sections with headings.

Each paragraph covers its own topic, introduced with a topic sentence . Each of these topics must contribute to your overall argument; don’t include irrelevant information.

This example paragraph takes a Rogerian approach: It first acknowledges the merits of the opposing position and then highlights problems with that position.

Hover over different parts of the example to see how a body paragraph is constructed.

A common frustration for teachers is students’ use of Wikipedia as a source in their writing. Its prevalence among students is not exaggerated; a survey found that the vast majority of the students surveyed used Wikipedia (Head & Eisenberg, 2010). An article in The Guardian stresses a common objection to its use: “a reliance on Wikipedia can discourage students from engaging with genuine academic writing” (Coomer, 2013). Teachers are clearly not mistaken in viewing Wikipedia usage as ubiquitous among their students; but the claim that it discourages engagement with academic sources requires further investigation. This point is treated as self-evident by many teachers, but Wikipedia itself explicitly encourages students to look into other sources. Its articles often provide references to academic publications and include warning notes where citations are missing; the site’s own guidelines for research make clear that it should be used as a starting point, emphasizing that users should always “read the references and check whether they really do support what the article says” (“Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia,” 2020). Indeed, for many students, Wikipedia is their first encounter with the concepts of citation and referencing. The use of Wikipedia therefore has a positive side that merits deeper consideration than it often receives.

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An argumentative essay ends with a conclusion that summarizes and reflects on the arguments made in the body.

No new arguments or evidence appear here, but in longer essays you may discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your argument and suggest topics for future research. In all conclusions, you should stress the relevance and importance of your argument.

Hover over the following example to see the typical elements of a conclusion.

The internet has had a major positive impact on the world of education; occasional pitfalls aside, its value is evident in numerous applications. The future of teaching lies in the possibilities the internet opens up for communication, research, and interactivity. As the popularity of distance learning shows, students value the flexibility and accessibility offered by digital education, and educators should fully embrace these advantages. The internet’s dangers, real and imaginary, have been documented exhaustively by skeptics, but the internet is here to stay; it is time to focus seriously on its potential for good.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

The majority of the essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Unless otherwise specified, you can assume that the goal of any essay you’re asked to write is argumentative: To convince the reader of your position using evidence and reasoning.

In composition classes you might be given assignments that specifically test your ability to write an argumentative essay. Look out for prompts including instructions like “argue,” “assess,” or “discuss” to see if this is the goal.

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THE PHILOSOPHER

Published since 1923.

"We and I": An Essay by Dan Zahavi (Keywords: Phenomenology; Collective Intentionality; Selfhood)

© Melody Overstreet

From The Philosopher, vol. 108, no. 4 (" What is We? "). If you enjoy reading this, please consider becoming a patron or making a small donation .

We are unfunded and your support is greatly appreciated.

“If I am I, because you are you, and you are you, because I am I, then I am not I, and you are not you. But if I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you, and we can talk”. Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk

The capacity to engage in different types of collective intentionality is often considered a key feature of human sociality. We can enjoy a symphony, solve a task, reach a decision, and make plans for the future together, just as we can share responsibilities, traditions and customs. After winning a match with a group of teammates, I might share feelings of joy at our victory, just as I might regret that we, the Danes, lost Scania to the Swedes in 1658, or inform my mother that we have now finished moving all her furniture.

But who or what is this we, to whom intentions, beliefs, emotions, and actions are attributed? When confronted with a question like this, it might be natural to think of it as an invitation to reflect on the features that characterize us as a group, a community, or a nation. What is it that makes us, say, Danes, and who belongs – and who does not belong – to that group? Another option is to engage in a kind of descriptive sociology and examine the varieties of we. How do dyads, groups of friends, members of a bridge club, business associates, and national communities relate to one another, and what kind of we, if any, do they each instantiate? What is the relation between an ephemeral form of we that is bound to the here and now of concrete face-to-face interaction and a more enduring, but at the same time also more normatively mediated, trans-generational form of collective identity? All these questions merit further examination, but in the following my focus will be on the relation between group-identity and self-identity. What is the relation between the we and the I? This type of question is not merely of theoretical interest. Depending on one’s account, different implications follow for how to approach crucial legal, political, and social questions related to, for instance, the status of national identity.

If we look at the political discourse, for example, the answer is often taken for granted. On a view found across the political spectrum, your group identity is your most important identity marker. Some would even claim that it is your membership of certain groups (be it a nation, a religious community, a social class, an ethnicity, a sexual orientation) and their intersection that provides you with a self-identity in the first place. It might consequently be tempting to reverse the order of explanation. What we need first and foremost is not an explanation of how a number of individuals come together as a we, but rather an explanation of how each of us eventually manages to secure some degree of separation and independence.

Perhaps there is a way of defending the primacy of the we that can avoid what some would take to be excessive metaphysical commitments.

In the contemporary philosophical debate on collective intentionality, attempts to prioritize the we and the group have, however, frequently been met with scepticism. When John Searle insists that the very notion of a group mind is “at best mysterious and at worst incoherent” he is speaking for many. But perhaps there is a way of defending the primacy of the we that can avoid what some would take to be excessive metaphysical commitments, e.g. a commitment to the existence of some kind of “hive mind”. One might, for example, argue that the I – the first-person perspective, the self – is communally grounded and enabled by certain kinds of social circumstances. As one translation of the Nguni Bantu term ubuntu has it: “I am because we are”.

The community first view can take different forms. Some would argue that we first experience ourselves as part of a group, a family or tribe, and automatically partake in its way of life before we develop our own individuality and distinct perspective on the world. Others would defend the view that human selfhood presupposes the possession of the first-person concept. It requires the capacity to conceive of oneself as oneself and the linguistic ability to use the first-person pronoun to refer to oneself. On this account, being an I requires concept possession and language acquisition, and therefore also membership of a linguistic community. A third option would be to defend the view that the community does not merely condition what we experience, but also that we have experiences. On this account, subjective experiences are social constructs. All these accounts would claim that the standard way of addressing the problem of collective intentionality and identity suffers from what might be called an individualist bias.

There are many good reasons to reject an aggregative account of community, i.e., the view that the relation between a community and its members can be understood in analogy with the relation between a heap of sand and its composite grains. But should one go so far as to defend the reverse view and ascribe primacy to the we? Are you a member of a collective, of a we, before you acquire your own individual identity, and is the latter derived from the former?

Here is one argument in favour of this view. On a certain understanding of selfhood, our self-identity is not something ready-made, something fixed by nature that simply awaits discovery. You do not have a self-identity in the same way you have a spleen, and you cannot use the same method to examine both. Who you are might partially depend on your biology, but it is certainly also a question of what matters to you and what you care about. In short, it is more an accomplishment than a given, more the result of an act than of a fact. It is a question of the values you embrace and the commitments you endorse. Indeed, it is by living a life in accordance with certain normative guidelines that you develop your own distinct point of view on matters, and thereby acquire a distinct individuality. This is why knowing that you are, say, pro-life and pro-gun rather than pro-choice tells me something about who you are. If you change your interests, political view, religion etc., you also change.

But of course, the community of which I am part influences what has significance and meaning for me. It is crucial to my personal flourishing and provides me with a background against which more individual choices about how to live can be made. To imagine that each of us develops our own preferences – be they culinary, religious or political – in splendid isolation, to imagine, as Hobbes did, that we each emerge from the earth like mushrooms without any obligations to each other, and that we only start to engage in social and communal activities because we deem this to be conducive for the realization of our own individual goals, is clearly nothing but a fantasy. By implication, why not accept that you cannot be a self on your own, but only together with others, as part of a group?

But we need to tread carefully here. To argue that one owes one’s identity to the collective, and that one is what one is simply as a result of one’s group membership can quickly lead to the view that members of the same group(s) are alike in all essential respects. And that is obviously wrong. Indeed, just as one should not take groups and collective intentions to be simply the summation or aggregation of individuals and their intentions, one should not seek to reduce selfhood and self-identity to group identity and group membership. In what follows, I will consider two reasons why this kind of group-thinking is mistaken. First, it operates with too simplistic a conception of what it means to be a self and have a self-identity. Secondly, it fundamentally errs in its understanding of what it means to be (part of) a we.

The self is neither simple nor univocal. Rather, the self is something that is better viewed as multifaceted and multidimensional. This has often been recognized in the literature. Whereas William James, for instance, distinguishes between the material, social, and spiritual self, and Ulrich Neisser between the ecological, interpersonal, extended, private, and conceptual self, it has more recently become customary to distinguish a minimal experiential self from a more normatively enriched and extended self. Some dimensions of self are clearly social and first established in and through development and socialization. This would, for instance, include those aspects that are constituted by the values and norms we endorse. These dimensions can also be lost, for instance, in severe dementia.

But there are other, more fundamental dimensions that are present from very early on and which are linked to our embodiment and experiential life. Consider, for instance, the fact that we encounter the world from an embodied perspective. The objects I perceive are perceived as being to the right or left of me, or as being close by or further away from me. According to some developmental psychologists, from early infancy children are able to discriminate their own body from the surrounding environment; they can perceive where they are, how they are moving, what they are doing, and whether a given action is their own or not. Likewise, we do not experience hunger, pain, distress, fatigue, and anger as free-floating anonymous events, but as self-concerning experiences. When feeling nausea, I am not faced with a two-step process in which I first detect the presence of an unpleasant experience, and then wonder whose experience it might be. Rather, experiences are necessarily like something for a subject, they necessarily involve a point of view – they come with perspectival ownership . It might consequently be argued that a minimal form of selfhood is a built-in feature of experiential life, and that only, as Joseph Margolis has put it, “the utter elimination of experience could possibly vindicate the elimination of selves”.

If one really wishes to extirpate the so-called individualist bias, one should consequently go all the way and argue for the radical claim that experiences are socially constructed, not only when it concerns their specific content, but also their very being . Wolfgang Prinz, who defends such a view, has claimed that human beings who were denied all social interaction (like the famous case of Kasper Hauser) would be like zombies, “completely self-less and thus without consciousness”. But is such a view really plausible? The main difficulty with a view like this is that nobody so far has been able to explain how social interaction is supposed to give rise to experience. Some psychoanalytically-influenced developmental psychologists have suggested that it is the caretaker that teaches the infant to attend to its own initially non-conscious affective states, and that the latter only become experientially manifest as a result of being introspectively monitored by the infant. On this account, the caretaker’s social behaviour would thus be part of the causal process leading to experience. The problem, however, is that this model – like all other higher-order representational accounts of consciousness – fails to explain how a non-conscious mental state can be transformed into a subjective experience by being targeted by another (in this case, socially induced) non-conscious higher-order mental state.

You cannot be a member of a we without somehow affirming or endorsing that membership experientially. To be part of a we, you have to experience it from within.

What about the we? Why does an attempt to derive the I from the we fail to understand the nature of the first-person plural? It is important here to realize that a we is a quite particular kind of social formation. Although by birth(right) one might belong to a certain social category (family, class, ethnicity, blood group, etc.) regardless of whether or not one knows or cares about it, and although outsiders might classify one as a member of a certain group quite independently of one’s own view of the matter, such externally enforced classifications are not of much relevance if we wish to understand what it means to be part of a we. In contrast to various kinds of aggregate groups, a we requires an experiential anchoring. To put it differently, you cannot be a member of a we without somehow affirming or endorsing that membership experientially. To be part of a we, you have to experience it from within. That is what makes the we a first-person plural. Saying this is by no means to say that the identification with and participation in a given group always happens deliberatively and voluntarily or that it cannot be based on shared objective features such as biological kinship. One might be born into and brought up within a certain family and community, and such memberships might be quite beyond the domain of personal will and decision. What is important, however, is that the membership in question involves rather than bypasses the self-understanding and first-person perspective of the involved parties. Even in such cases, for the membership in question to count as a we-membership, it requires that you do experience yourself as one of us .

To conceive of the we as an undifferentiated fusional oneness is to misunderstand the very notion. The attempt to derive the individuality of minds from a pre-existing undifferentiated group will consequently not get us what we want, namely a proper account of the first-person plural . Rather, if we are to speak meaningfully of a we , plurality and differentiation must be preserved in order to make possible a genuine being-with-one-another. One might express this by saying that the interpersonal differences must be bridged rather than erased. Heterogeneity is an essential part of communal life. But if this is so, the suggestion that the we precedes and enables individual differentiation – be it on the level of identity or on the level of experience – must be rejected as incoherent. When Martin Buber claimed that, “Only men who are capable of truly saying Thou to one another can truly say We with one another” he was onto something.

An infant’s first experiences typically occur in the company of others, but that does not show that its experiences are enabled or constituted by social interaction.

Perhaps some might object that abstract considerations like the preceding are all well and good, but we shouldn’t forget that in real life we are together with others from the start, that from the very beginning we are all embedded in sociality. So why not just acknowledge that the collective we is prior to the individual I, or that they at the very least arise together? But here again it is important not to move too fast. First, we need to distinguish factual co-occurrence (which nobody is denying) from constitutive interdependence (which is a much stronger – and theoretically interesting – claim). The former is no evidence for the latter. To put it differently, an infant’s first experiences typically occur in the company of others, but that does not show that its experiences are enabled or constituted by social interaction. Secondly, we shouldn’t make the mistake of assuming that one can prove the primacy of the communal we simply by pointing to the fundamental role of sociality. Whereas the different forms of we (the dyad of lovers, a group of friends, an editorial board, etc.) are all quite particular social formations, sociality is a much wider umbrella term that also covers relations of antagonism, indifference, instrumental interactions, etc. To put it differently, the number of people with whom we have social relations is much larger than the number of people together with whom we constitute a we. Even if infants are ultra-social from birth onwards, this hardly shows them to be part of a we from the outset.

Denying that our identity can be reduced to or exhaustively explained by our group membership(s) is not to deny that this membership in many ways shapes who we are. Even if it should turn out that a we requires some pre-existing (minimal) form of selfhood, it is far from obvious that genuine we-phenomena are compatible with just any account of self, including one that considers the essence of selfhood to reside in some kind of self-enclosed disembodied interiority. To put it differently, the fact that an individual can identify with a group and adopt a we-perspective does tell us something significant about the fluid nature of selfhood and self-identity. If it is acknowledged that we can come to share intentions, emotions, and even identities with others, this will consequently put pressure on various assumptions about the nature of selfhood and constrain the range of available options. Selfhood is not only what allows us to mark our difference to others, it is also something that permits us to share a perspective with them.

It is currently not difficult to find advocates of some form of no-self doctrine, i.e., sceptics who – often on the basis of neuroscience and/or Buddhism – deny the existence of selves. A critical rejoinder to this scepticism would lead too far afield, but it is worth noting that the claim that the self is an illusion has wider ramifications. To deny that the self is real is by the very same token to deny the reality of the community. If you eliminate the first-person singular, you also lose the first-person plural.

To deny that the self is real is by the very same token to deny the reality of the community. If you eliminate the first-person singular, you also lose the first-person plural.

Arguing that a we requires a plurality of selves, arguing that it involves processes of group-identification, is, however, only part of the story. Even if I cannot be a member of a we unless I identify with the group in question, my identification is only necessary and not sufficient for membership. Why is that? Because a we by necessity involves more than one member. And whether I count as one also depends on whether the others recognize me as such. To understand the nature of a we, it is consequently not enough just to look at the relation between I and we. One also has to look at the relationship between the prospective members.

To put it differently, if we wish to understand what it means to share a belief, an intention, an emotional experience or, more generally, a perspective with others, we also need to look at how we come to understand and relate to others in the first place. Collective intentionality requires some capacity for social cognition, but are all forms of interpersonal understanding equal to the task? Is it enough simply to be able to single out and relate to others as special kinds of objects (“agents with intentions”)? Will two people who simultaneously adopt a third-person observer perspective on each other be able to enter into and maintain a joint we-perspective, or is something else needed? While recognizing that size matters – there are important differences between the kind of we whose members know each other in person and the kind of large-scale we whose members have never met, but who are nevertheless united via shared rituals, traditions and normative expectations – let me propose that second-person engagement is of crucial importance. To relate to and address another as a you (rather than as a he or she) is to relate to someone, an I, who in turn relates to me as a you.

Second-person engagement is a subject–subject (you-me) relation in which I am aware of and directed at the other and, at the same time, implicitly aware of myself in the accusative, as attended to or addressed by the other. Second-person engagement consequently involves not merely an awareness of the other, but also and at the same time, a form of interpersonal self-consciousness. The idea that the you is important for the we can not only be found in Buber, but also in classical phenomenologists such as Edmund Husserl and Alfred Schutz. Schutz, for instance, claims that a we-relationship is established when two individuals engage in a reciprocal thou-orientation ( Du-Einstellung ). To make this proposal compelling, more details have to be added, but I find it very plausible that a proper account of the we calls for a closer examination of topics such as reciprocity, recognition, and communication.

Dan Zahavi is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Oxford, and director of the Centre for Subjectivity Research in Copenhagen. His primary research area is phenomenology and philosophy of mind, and their intersection with empirical disciplines such as psychiatry and psychology. Since 2020, Zahavi has been the principal investigator on a 5-year research project entitled Who are We? which is supported by the European Research Council and the Carlsberg Foundation. Zahavi’s writings have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Homepage: cfs.ku.dk/staff/?pure=en/persons/34520 Twitter: @DanZahavi

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1 Kommentar

- yes but first let’s not forget “we” are all human - problem is the we as well as the I as experienced by humans has led to many problems and confusion such as Communism and Populism and Nationalism re the we and Totalitarianism re the I - sure it’s complicated - though enjoyed this article -

Published: April 4, 2024   |   Last Updated: April 5, 2024

Filing and paying taxes for u.s. citizens or residents living abroad.

I previously described the dizzying tax compliance challenges encountered by U.S. citizens and residents living abroad . Now, I will describe the basics of filing and paying U.S. taxes for U.S. citizens and residents living abroad.

Who Must File

The United States taxes its citizens and residents on worldwide income, regardless of where they live. This means that a U.S. citizen or resident must file a U.S. income tax return reporting all income, even if the individual lives and works in a foreign country. This is the case even if the U.S. citizen or resident doesn’t have any income from a source within the United States.

Read my previous blog  about tax compliance challenges for a more in-depth discussion of who qualifies as a “U.S. citizen or resident,” including so-called “accidental Americans” – individuals who are considered U.S. citizens, sometimes without realizing it.

When to File

You are allowed an automatic 2-month extension of time to file your income tax return and pay income tax if you are a U.S. citizen or resident, and on the regular due date of your return 1) you are living outside the United States and Puerto Rico and your main place of business or post of duty is outside the United States or Puerto Rico, or 2) you are on military or naval service outside the United States and Puerto Rico. This means that if you meet the criteria, and your return is normally due on April 15, 2024, you are allowed until June 17, 2024 (since June 15 is a Saturday) to file. To take advantage of the automatic two-month extension, you must attach a statement to your return explaining which of the two situations apply to you. Note that you still must pay interest on any tax not paid by the regular due date of your return even if you qualify for the extension.

You can also file Form 4868 to request an automatic six-month extension of time to file your return. This six-month extension runs concurrently with the automatic two-month extension. Therefore, if you qualify for the automatic two-month extension, you will only receive an additional four months for a total of six months. To qualify for the six-month extension, you can either file the request by the original due date of your return or, if you qualify for the automatic two-month extension, by the extended due date. You also may be able to request an additional two-month extension to December 15, which is discretionary and must be approved by the IRS. These extensions are not an extension of time to pay your tax. Therefore, you owe interest on any unpaid tax and may owe penalties.

There is one other extension that might be available. If you expect to meet the residency tests to qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion or the foreign housing exclusion/deduction but not until after your return is due, you may qualify for an extension that is generally 30 days beyond the date on which you can reasonably expect to qualify.

How to File

You always have the option to mail your return to the IRS. A tax return mailed from a foreign country will be accepted as timely filed if it bears an official postmark dated on or before midnight of the due date, including any extension of time for such filing. If you choose to use a private delivery service, you must similarly give your return to a designated international private delivery service before midnight on the due date, including any extensions of time.

Your ability to file a return electronically will depend on the form and other circumstances. For example, if you are applying for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), which is used by individuals who do not have and are not eligible for SSNs, your return accompanying the ITIN application must be filed on paper. Some other forms, including international information returns, must also be filed on paper. Your ability to use the Free File program , where taxpayers file their returns for free via certain software providers, will depend on the software provider and the form you are filing. This filing season, the IRS is implementing a Direct File pilot program , which will allow taxpayers to file for free directly with the IRS, but it is not available to taxpayers abroad.

If you file your return electronically, be aware that it will need to be e-filed through an electronic return transmitter before midnight of the due date, including any extensions of time, to be considered timely. An electronic return transmitter is a preparer, software, or platform that has received approval to submit returns electronically to the IRS on behalf of taxpayers. Further, if the IRS rejects an e-filed tax return before processing, it will not be considered timely filed if it is subsequently accepted after the filing deadline. This can cause challenges for taxpayers who file at or near the due date for their return. Since there is a disparity in the IRS’s treatment of paper-filed and e-filed returns and other documents that results in incongruous and inequitable results, I have recommended to Congress that it amend the law to treat electronically submitted tax payments and documents as timely if they are submitted on or before the applicable deadline.

How to Pay Tax or Receive a Refund

If you live abroad and owe U.S. tax, you can mail a paper check to the IRS or pay with a credit card. Options to make electronic payments are limited. The IRS cannot currently accept e-payments from foreign bank accounts, so you can only make an e-payment through a U.S. financial institution or corresponding bank . Similarly, international wire transfers , which can be expensive, can only be made from certain banks. The good news is that the IRS is planning to allow taxpayers to make payments to the IRS directly from foreign bank accounts in the future.

If you are entitled to a refund, that refund will almost certainly be paid by a paper check that is mailed to you. Currently, the only existing option for international direct deposit of refunds is a manual refund issued through the International Treasury Service, which is only available for refunds over $1,000,000 or for TAS hardship situations.

Be Aware of International Information Reporting Requirements

Separate from your income tax filing obligations, you may have to file an information return if you receive money from abroad (including a non-taxable gift) or have certain foreign financial interests and cross-border business activities. For example, taxpayers with foreign financial accounts exceeding a certain amount must attach Form 8938 to their Form 1040. These reporting requirements surprise many taxpayers living abroad. It is critical that you take steps to determine if you need to file as these requirements come with significant penalty exposure when a filing is late, incomplete, or inaccurate. Many of the forms take significant time and records to prepare and can only be filed on paper. For more information, see the IRS’s website on international information reporting penalties .

U.S. citizens and residents who live abroad are subject to filing requirements, many of which are complicated and some of which taxpayers may not even be aware. Access to IRS assistance is limited, further burdening these taxpayers. I have recommended that the IRS improve services for taxpayers abroad , including providing in-person services, such as Taxpayer Assistance Centers, outside the United States; providing a toll-free international telephone line or other alternative free service; and providing greater accessibility to online accounts to taxpayers abroad who have problems verifying their identity.

This blog provides an overview of information that taxpayers abroad need to know to successfully meet their obligations for this filing season. Of course, there are many other forms, publications, regulations, and statutes that might be applicable to your U.S. tax situation. For more information, a good starting point is Publication 54, Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad . If you are a member of the military serving overseas, additional tax preparation resources may be available and there are special provisions which might be relevant, including a deadline extension if serving in a combat zone. For more information, see the TAS webpage on Resources for Military Personnel and Their Families .

Read the past NTA Blogs

The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the National Taxpayer Advocate. The National Taxpayer Advocate presents an independent taxpayer perspective that does not necessarily reflect the position of the IRS, the Treasury Department, or the Office of Management and Budget.

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2024 Global Learning Challenge

Is Using an Essay Writing Service Considered Cheating?

Oliva Campbell

Our organization.

CollegeEssay.org

What is the name of your solution?

Provide a one-line summary of your solution..

Debunking Misconceptions and Embracing Academic Support

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

In what country is your solution team headquartered.

• United States

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Film your elevator pitch., what specific problem are you solving.

Is Using an Essay Writing Service Considered Cheating? Debunking Misconceptions and Embracing Academic Support

In the contemporary academic landscape, the utilization of essay writing service has sparked a debate regarding its ethical implications. Some perceive it as a form of cheating, while others argue it as a legitimate means of seeking academic support. As we delve into this discussion, it's imperative to explore both perspectives and shed light on the role of essay writing services in academia.

What is your solution?

Understanding the Controversy The Ethical Dilemma

The crux of the debate lies in the ethical dilemma surrounding the use of essay writing services. Traditional notions of academic integrity emphasize the importance of individual effort and originality in scholarly pursuits. From this standpoint, outsourcing the task of essay writing may seem like circumventing academic rigor and ethical standards.

Perceived Academic Dishonesty

Critics often equate using essay writing services to academic dishonesty, arguing that it undermines the learning process and devalues the significance of genuine scholarly achievements. They view it as a shortcut to academic success, devoid of the essential elements of critical thinking, research, and academic growth.

Legitimate Academic Support

On the contrary, proponents of essay writing services advocate for a nuanced understanding of academic support. They argue that seeking assistance from professional writers does not inherently constitute cheating but rather serves as a supplementary resource to enhance learning outcomes. Best Essay writing service can provide valuable guidance, especially for students grappling with complex topics or facing time constraints.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Debunking Misconceptions Collaboration, Not Duplication

Contrary to popular belief, engaging with essay writing services does not entail passively submitting pre-written essays as one's own work. Instead, it involves collaboration between students and professional writers to develop custom essays tailored to their unique requirements. The final product reflects the student's input, understanding, and perspective, albeit with expert guidance.

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Embracing Academic Support Fostering Academic Success

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In conclusion, the debate surrounding the use of essay writing services underscores the complexities inherent in modern education. While some may view it as a contentious issue mired in ethical ambiguity, a nuanced perspective reveals its potential as a valuable academic support tool. By dispelling misconceptions and embracing the role of essay writing services as supplementary resources, students can leverage these services responsibly to enhance their academic journey. Ultimately, the ethical considerations lie in how students utilize these services to foster their academic growth while upholding principles of integrity and honesty in their scholarly pursuits.

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Leveraging CollegeEssay.org and MyPerfectWords.com for Optimal Results

In the quest for academic excellence and ethical scholarship, students can enhance their learning journey by leveraging reputable essay writing services such as CollegeEssay.org and MyPerfectWords.com. These platforms offer a myriad of features and benefits designed to support students in achieving their academic goals while upholding principles of integrity and honesty.

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Understanding Childhood Trauma Can Help Us Be More Resilient

I n 2022, the World Health Organization estimated that 1 billion children were maltreated each year around the globe. Maltreatment such as neglect and abuse are types of adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs . But they often say little about how children respond, which can either be traumatic or resilient. Now, revolutionary new findings in the sciences help us understand how different dimensions of adversity can leave different signatures of trauma and how we can use this knowledge to help children recover and build resilience against future harms.

Consider Ethan and Kevin (their names are pseudonyms to protect their privacy), two children that I worked with as an educator and researcher of trauma in schools. Ethan was abandoned by his mother at birth and placed in an orphanage in Eastern Europe, his home for the next six years. He was deprived of the fundamental needs of safety, nutrition, and human contact. He had books, but there was no one to read to him. He had caretakers, but they rarely comforted him when he was upset.

Kevin, on the other hand, witnessed his father physically and emotionally abusing his mother for the first ten years of his life. Around his sixth birthday, Kevin directly experienced his father's abuse. For entertainment, and to teach him that life is tough, Dad put Kevin and his older sister Joani into the outdoor dog cage, threw food in, and forced them to compete for their nightly dinner. If they refused, he beat them until they entered the dinner arena.

Ethan and Kevin were both traumatized by their maltreatment, but that doesn't capture what was happening inside of them. Ethan had no motivation, was numb to rewards, struggled with school and couldn't maintain social relationships. Kevin was an emotional maelstrom, frightened, hypervigilant, running away from unfamiliar men and hurting himself when he heard noises. Ethan and Kevin presented different traumatic responses or “signatures”—unique identifiers of the mental distortions created by their adverse experiences. Identifying these traumatic signatures enables caretakers, teachers, doctors, and counselors to sculpt a path to resilience that is specific to the child's harms and needs and gives them the best hope for recovery, whether in childhood or later in life.

Read More: How Traumatized Children See the World, According to Their Drawings

The idea of traumatic signatures is only a few years old , but the scientific evidence leading to it is not. We have known for decades that different environmental experiences shape development, including how and when our emotions, thoughts, and actions mature. When the environment is harsh and unpredictable, threatening survival, the timing of development tends to speed up, leading to individuals who mature quickly—recognizing and responding appropriately to danger as youngsters. In contrast, when the environment is impoverished, with individuals deprived of essential experiences and resources, development tends to slow down, resulting in delays in the attainment of independence, dedicated social roles, and sexual behavior.

Ethan and Kevin, like millions of other children, experienced two of the core types of ACEs — deprivation and abuse, respectively — during different time periods of development. These differences in experience shaped their traumatic signatures.

Deprivation is typified by a delay in the development of the brain’s executive functions —attention, short-term working memory, self-regulation, and planning. The executive functions form the bedrock to all learning and decision-making, but they are also essential in supporting more specialized cognitive functions such as language, social thinking, math, music, and morality. Children with weak executive functions fare poorly in school, and are socially and physically unhealthy. Such was Ethan’s traumatic response.

Abuse is characterized by warp speed development of a nervous system that detects threats, accompanied by hypervigilance, emotional turbulence, and out of control behavior. The root cause is a hyperactive amygdala, a brain region that plays an essential role in emotional processing, and its connection to a frontal lobe region that controls our feelings, thoughts, and actions. This constellation of changes to the nervous system leaves the child in a heightened state of fear, either fleeing or fighting to cope with an unsafe world . Such was Kevin's traumatic response.

The signatures penned by these types of adversity are further modified by their timing. In studies of orphans living in austere, institutionalized settings — such as the orphanage that Ethan grew up in—those deprived of essential experiences for more than the first few years of life showed deficits in executive functioning, social relationships, and attachment. In contrast, orphans who were placed in foster care by their second birthday, largely recovered from their deprivation in the years that followed. Children who are abused earlier in life , typically before puberty—such as Kevin—show greater emotional dysregulation, weaker control over their thoughts and actions, and more rapid biological aging.

Read More: How Childhood Trauma Can Cause Premature Aging

Different types of adversity, including different combinations, pen different signatures. But ultimately, they also define how we help children recover and sculpt their resilience. Each child's genetic architecture positions them somewhere on a spectrum of responses to adversity that runs from vulnerable to resilient . Those who land on the resilient end are handed greater immunity to adversity because of stronger executive functions that tamp down emotions and maintain focused attention. Those who land on the vulnerable end are handed greater sensitivity to adversity, dominated by emotional turbulence and inflamed autoimmune systems that heighten illness . Environmental experiences can displace individuals onto different sections of this spectrum, either enhancing their resilience or magnifying their vulnerability.

At age six, Ethan's tenure of deprivation ended and a rich life of loving care started with Julie, his adoring adoptive mother. At age 10, Kevin's father was incarcerated and his parents divorced, thereby ending his tenure of exposure to abuse and starting a more promising life with his mother Kate who desperately tried to provide for him despite her own struggles with mental health. Ethan and Kevin were both on Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) that documented their disabilities and guided the work carried out in their schools. Both of their schools were trauma-informed, meaning that they adhered to the 4Rs : r ealizing that traumatic experiences are common, r ecognizing that traumatic experiences are associated with specific symptoms or signatures, r esponding to a child's trauma by integrating knowledge of what happened with what can be done to help, and r esisting re-traumatizing both students and staff. Both schools were also aware of Ethan's and Kevin's life experiences and recognized that they would require different approaches for aiding recovery and building resilience.

Ethan, like other children who have been deprived of essential experiences in the early years of their lives, required an approach that reassured him of receiving unwavering, predictable care while providing strategies to enhance his ability to learn and develop healthy relationships. His care included access to a visual schedule that showed the timing of activities, including when meals and snacks were provided. Predictable access to meals and snacks, both at home and in school, rapidly helped reduce his obsession and hoarding of food. The unwavering support provided by Julie as well as the school staff, eventually melted away Ethan's distrust of others, enabling healthy relationships to grow. The visual schedule helped reduce the load on his short- term working memory, while helping him prepare and plan for transitions between activities. Stubbornly resistant to change, however, was Ethan’s capacity to associate or link actions with consequences. For Ethan, as for other children who have been severely deprived of experiences early in life, associative learning was heavily compromised, awaiting the addition of new tools to the trauma-informed toolkit.

Kevin’s signature of abuse was initially treated by a psychiatrist with Tenex—a medication for aggression, impulsivity, and hyperactivity—along with cognitive behavioral therapy to help him find alternative ways of thinking about and coping with his trauma. His teachers intervened further, providing him with frequent breaks to manage his frustration and burn off some energy. These approaches reduced Kevin’s outbursts and violent attacks on peers and staff, but he was still highly impulsive and fidgety. Kevin’s team decided to start him on neurofeedback , a method that enabled him to consciously modify the pattern of brain activation, shifting toward greater calm, focus, and control over his emotions. Eventually, Kevin developed good friends, healthy relationships with teachers, and an after-school job where he was learning to be a car mechanic. He also learned to trust other men, including me, one of his teachers, who deeply cared about him and cheered on his successes.

Ethan and Kevin walked off their landscapes of harm and onto paths of hope, equipped with skills to manage future adversity. Both lucked out with relatively resilient genetic architectures that were joined by nurturing environments, ones filled with people who cared for them. Many other children, perhaps the majority of the 1 billion who are maltreated each year, are less fortunate, more vulnerable by nature and nurture. While it is highly unlikely that we will ever flatten the landscape of harm, we can do far more to nurture recovery and build resilience if we recognize how traumatic signatures unfold—and how to create action plans to work through them.

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A.I. Is Spying on the Food We Throw Away

Artificial intelligence is peering into restaurant garbage pails and crunching grocery-store data to try to figure out how to send less uneaten food into dumpsters.

By Somini Sengupta

Somini Sengupta is slightly obsessed with running a zero waste kitchen.

A hotel chain installs a camera in its trash bins to spy on what guests are tossing. Turns out its breakfast croissants are too big. Many are going to waste — along with profits.

A supermarket can suddenly see, hidden in its own sales data, that yellow onions aren’t selling as fast as red onions and are more likely to be trashed.

The brains behind both of these efforts: Artificial intelligence.

It’s part of an emerging industry that’s trying to cash in on a senseless human problem: The huge amounts of uneaten food that go from supermarkets and restaurants to the dumpster. Much of that, if it’s not composted, ends up in landfills where it decays, sending potent planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Enter a new business opportunity. A company called Winnow has developed the A.I. tool that spies on restaurant garbage. Another, company, Afresh, digests supermarket data to look for wasteful mismatches between what a store is stocking, and what people are buying.

A.I. has a dirty environmental footprint of its own. Crunching huge amounts of data requires huge amounts of electricity . Nor can A.I. (yet) alter what the human brain has come to expect in modern, industrial societies: an abundance of fresh avocados at the supermarket all year, an ever-expanding variety of tiny plastic yogurt cups, heaving platters of nachos on happy hour menus.

Food waste is a big problem

The two companies are part of an emerging industry trying to address a problem created by the modern food industry. In the United States, a third of food that’s grown is never eaten .

Globally, 1 billion metric tons of food went to waste in 2022, according to the United Nations Environment Program. Food waste accounts for 8 to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions , roughly equal to emissions from aviation and shipping combined.

“It’s a problem that literally gets swept away,” said Marc Zornes, the founder of Winnow, which works with restaurants, hotels and institutional caterers.

Adding to the problem: confusing “best by” and “sell by” labels on food products that result in perfectly edible foods going into the trash.

Some supermarkets make a dent

Signs of progress are emerging from a group of supermarket chains that voluntarily pledged to reduce food waste in their operations in the Western United States and Canada. Between 2019 and 2022, the eight chains that are a part of the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment project reported a 25 percent decline in their total volumes of unsold food .

They also reported donating more food to charities and sending more of their waste to compost facilities, which are scarce, instead of landfills.

“It demonstrates that the national goal to cut food waste in half by 2030 may, in fact, be possible, but we would need dramatically more action across all food-system sectors for that to happen.” said Dana Gunders, head of Refed, a research and advocacy group that tracks the voluntary project’s data.

There are many new tools now to help retailers cut waste. Some startups, like Apeel and Mori, offer coatings for fresh produce so they don’t spoil as fast. An app called Flashfood connects customers to discounted foods at grocery stores, similar to Too Good to Go , which connects customers to restaurants and grocers selling excess food at discount.

How many eggs this week?

Afresh’s technology grinds around six years of sales data on every product in the fresh-foods section of a grocery store it works with. Its A.I. tool can divine when people buy avocados, and at what price. It can mash that up with data on how quickly avocados spoil and in turn advise how many avocados to stock.

If Easter egg painting season traditionally brings more egg sales, it can calculate how many more cases of eggs the store should order, and also, how many more bell peppers because shoppers usually make omelets with the extra eggs at home.

While an experienced store manager would likely know this, said Matt Schwartz, co-founder of Afresh, the A.I. would offer more precise information about many more products. It could recommend, for instance, that the store manager order 105 cases of eggs the week before Easter, rather than 110. “Every one case matters,” he said.

Also, said Suzanne Long, the sustainability chief for Albertson’s, which uses Afresh technology, experienced store managers are increasingly rare. “What the A.I. is doing is giving us the preciseness. Not just ‘I need to order onion’ but ‘this type of onion,’” she said.

Ms. Long said the chain has reduced food waste but declined to say by how much.

This robot does not dumpster dive

Winnow installs cameras above garbage bins in restaurant kitchens. The images are fed into an algorithm that can tell the difference between a half pan of lasagna (valuable) and a banana peel (not so much). A group of Hilton Hotels that rolled out the tool recently learned many of its breakfast pastries were too big — and also that baked beans were commonly left unfinished.

Refed, the research group, found in its 2022 estimates that 70 percent of wasted food at restaurants is food that’s left on the plate, signaling a need to reconsider portion sizes.

Mr. Zornes works mainly with hotels and cafeterias. He estimates restaurants waste between 5 and 15 percent of the food they buy. “This is an obvious problem everyone knows about,” Mr. Zornes said. “It’s clearly a problem we’re not fixing.”

Somini Sengupta is the international climate reporter on the Times climate team. More about Somini Sengupta

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Why Having Children Made Me More, Not Less, Hopeful That We Can Fight the Climate Crisis

By Megan Hunter

When I had my first child at the age of 25, I was, like many new parents, overwhelmed by the strength of my love for him, and by his vulnerability. I would push his buggy down the polluted local high street, unable to quite process the fragility of his tiny head poking above the blankets, surrounded by dust and fumes from passing cars.

I had grown up with a sense of doom about the environment, and in my 20s this only deepened, the anxiety broadening to include my children and their future. I remember an apocalyptic climate-themed front page of the newspaper beside the hospital bed where I lay with my second baby shortly after her birth. There was guilt, in bringing children into this world, alongside the inevitable fears, both large and small. When you have a child you see their death over and over, in the accidents that could happen, all the ways you could fail them. And in the climate crisis, this existential fear—and remorse—was rendered so much larger, planetary in scale. By the time I was writing my first novel in 2016, it seemed inevitable that the book, set in the near future as a woman gives birth to her first child, would take place in a world of climate disaster and upheaval: an imagined time when London is completely under water.

But as I wrote I found, in amongst despair and destruction, chaos and loss, there remained a thread of hope. This came from the protagonist’s baby, of course—from his first smiles, his crawling, his discovery of first foods amongst scarcity—but also from all the other loves in the book, for family and friends, even for strangers, bonds formed in extremity. In my own life, my children would constantly inspire me with their passionate delight in the world, but I was also struck by the relationships I formed with other women, and by the kindness of people who didn’t even know me. Once, when my toddler was having a tantrum, and my newborn baby was screaming in her buggy, a woman in a park knelt down beside me as I tried to pick my son off the ground. “You are not alone,” she said. I didn’t see her again, but I never forgot that moment.

Now, nearly nine years later, the book I wrote— The End We Start From —has become a film with the same name, adapted by Alice Birch, directed by Mahalia Belo, and starring Jodie Comer . Alongside my joy in the film itself, in how moving it is to see my book come to life in such a beautiful way, there is a sadness in how it has become all the more relevant to our climate-threatened world. As the narrator of my novel states: “This is what you don’t want, we realize. What no one ever wanted: for the news to be relevant.”

It does feel, in many ways, that there are now even fewer reasons to be hopeful, with the film’s setting now seeming less a dystopian future and more a contemporary story about the times we live in, with the UK once again ravaged by flooding , the climate emergency becoming more urgent while political solutions are inadequate and compromised by a profit-driven economy. I have often felt that the time since my children were born can only be characterised by an increasing sense of despair in relation to the climate, cumulative disappointments that seem to point solely to catastrophe.

But as I watched the film, I found myself drawn again to the love it depicts, how this love emerges from the flood waters, damaged as the city is, but still alive, still forceful. One of the most hopeful images in the film is of two mothers supporting and protecting each other, stronger through their friendship, singing as they walk through a sodden landscape. I was struck again by the thought that hope is not the same as optimism; it isn’t based on facts, or predictions. It comes from the refusal to give up, just as the unnamed heroine of the book and film can never give up, must always fight to survive, for herself, her son, for all those she loves.

It doesn’t seem to me that this is a passive kind of hope, a wishing for the best while sitting back and doing nothing. It’s a hope based on love itself, of what love drives us to. Whether for our children, our parents, our friends, love compels us to want a better future. And, crucially, this future relies on our care extending beyond those we are related to: it needs to go beyond self-interest, beyond even our personal ties—like that stranger who showed me kindness in the park—to a habitable, more equal world for everyone. I’ve long held the belief that hope can broaden our outlook. Though my hope may, in one sense, have started in my child, in his freshness in the world as I pushed his buggy along the street, it has gained strength in its expansion, in a wider view that encompasses a better, fairer world for all.

With my children now both at secondary school, I see how motherhood—and the hope it inspires—has propelled me to take action; to help create that better world. Now, they have their own fears and speculations; there are difficult questions about how we should live, and what their future will be like. As parents, all you want to do is reassure, and sometimes that doesn’t feel possible. But hope encourages me to keep going, to push beyond the limits of my own home, my own family, and—just as books and films do—to broaden the horizons of my life. When I wrote The End We Start From —and when I watched the film—this felt like something the story can offer, now: some small, steadfast image of a new beginning, even in the midst of disaster.

By Alexandra Macon

By Hannah Jackson

By Audrey Noble

‘The End We Start From’ by Megan Hunter is published by Picador. The film is out now.

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Welcome to the United Nations

Rwanda's post-genocide lessons: we must speak out against discrimination and prejudice

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On 7 April, it will be 30 years since the start of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. To commemorate this anniversary,  Amb.  Ernest Rwamucyo , the Permanent Representative of Rwanda to the United Nations in New York, shares insights with  Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor  on lessons learned, Rwanda's remarkable economic growth and advancements in women's empowerment, among other topics. The following are excerpts from the interview:

The United Nations designated 7th April as the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Can you share with us the significance of this date?

The date is significant because it marked the beginning of a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. When the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi started, within 100 days over 1 million Tutsis were massacred. 

It is now 30 years, but the memory is deep; the horrors that the victims and the survivors faced are still fresh. By remembering, we dignify those massacred and the survivors. 

It is also important for the survivors to reflect on the tragedy that befell them and their families. 

As Rwandans, it is a time when we call on our collective conscience to reflect on this tragedy and how we can rebuild our country. 

Over the last decade, in remembering we have focused on the theme,  Remember, Unite and Renew . 

We focus on how we rebuild afresh so that genocide never happens again. In renewing, we look into the future with hope. 

How do commemorative events here at the UN headquarters, back home in Rwanda and around the world, promote reconciliation? 

First, over a million Tutsis were massacred. By remembering them, we give them the dignity and the humanity that their killers denied them. 

We do that as a Rwandan society and as part of the international community. We share the lessons of that tragedy with the rest of the world in the hope that we can work to prevent future genocide. 

We do it with members of the international community to reawaken the world to the real dangers of genocide. 

Are the lessons from Rwanda on detecting the early stages of conflict reaching other countries?

We hope they do because the dangers are real. Any form of discrimination, prejudice, hatred, or bigotry can happen in any society, which is the beginning of genocide. 

We cannot be bystanders when there is discrimination or antisemitism, or when there is prejudice or hatred. 

How do you raise awareness internationally and among young people in particular? 

It is through commemorative and remembrance events. 

We also proactively engage our youth. For example, in collaboration with the UN, we host an event called  Youth Connekt , where we bring young people from different parts of the world to Rwanda to witness the country’s rebuilding efforts and how we are empowering the youth to contribute to the process. The aim is to promote peace and tolerance and to demonstrate that after tragedy, rebuilding a nation is possible through hard work. 

We emphasize that tolerance and peaceful co-existence is very important. We have also worked to empower our women to participate in rebuilding efforts. 

How does Youth Connekt impact young people in Rwanda and other parts of Africa? 

President Paul Kagame spearheads the initiative, and we partner with the UN. It started as a Rwandan initiative, but because of its potential to make young people creative and entrepreneurial, we have extended it to the rest of Africa and by extension the rest of the world. 

Young people come together to share innovative ideas; they come up with projects they can implement, and we give them access to opportunities and resources. 

They create technology-driven startups that uplift the welfare of societies. Some of these startups create significant jobs. 

What challenges have you faced in the rebuilding process and how have you addressed them? 

First, our society was traumatized by the genocide. So, we had to rebuild hope for our people. 

Second, genocide denial is a significant danger as it not only seeks to evade accountability but is also a process of continuation of the genocide. 

We have many genocide fugitives in different parts of the world, including in Europe and different parts of Africa, who have yet to face justice. We hope to work with the rest of the international community to hold them accountable so that the victims and survivors of the genocide can see justice served within their lifetime. 

Third, we face the challenge of hate speech. Sometimes, people fail to recognize the dangers posed by hate speech and discrimination. 

We are a developing country. We have worked to rebuild our country, including its infrastructure, but we still have a long way to go. A new Rwanda built out of the ashes of the 1994 genocide is a beacon of prosperity and hope for our people. 

When you say genocide deniers, are there people who believe genocide did not happen? 

There are people, especially perpetrators of genocide, who trivialize what happened or want to rewrite history. That is dangerous. 

Are you getting the support of the international community as you try to bring perpetrators to justice?

For sure, we get the support of the international community. Internally, we established a tribunal to try genocide perpetrators. 

We also had our restorative justice system, which is called Gacaca, aimed at using homegrown solutions to try perpetrators in a way that enables society to heal, while building a foundation of unity and reconciliation. 

Many individuals are being tried in other jurisdictions. Still, more needs to be done because thousands more are evading accountability. 

How is Rwanda achieving impressive economic growth despite the genocide? 

After the tragedy, Rwanda took ownership of its development strategy. We realized that Rwandans killed Rwandans. Of course, there is a long history before that: colonialism, bad leadership and bad governance. We could not allow our society to remain in the abyss of despair after the tragedy. 

Rwandans spearheaded the rebuilding of our nation based on unity, reconciliation, forgiveness, and the resilience that enabled us to pick up the pieces. 

We rebuilt our infrastructure and provided social protections to uplift the welfare of citizens. Today, Rwanda’s growing economy is creating wealth and prosperity for its people. 

We are building a new democratic society with functioning institutions.  

How does Rwanda address the challenge of high youth unemployment, often leading to impatience with the government, especially in post-conflict situations?

We are creating opportunities for young people. The Rwandan economy has been growing above 8 per cent over the last decade or so. We ensure that economic growth leads to poverty reduction and creates jobs and opportunities for young people. 

We have invested heavily in education, to ensure that our youth are skilled. We've also created a market economy that allows entrepreneurs to be innovative and creative. 

Rwanda has the world’s highest percentage of female parliamentarians, along with significant women representation in the cabinet. How do these factors impact economic development? 

Women's empowerment is at the forefront of Rwanda's post-genocide reconciliation and development. That our girls, mothers, and sisters feel included is something we are proud of. 

As President Kagame often says, no nation can develop if 50 per cent of its population is not included in the development process. It's for that reason that Rwandan women have been empowered and given opportunities to play a role in rebuilding the country. 

Women are well represented across our institutions—parliament, cabinet, local government, entrepreneurship, and other areas of decision-making in our society. 

The quality of women’s contributions and their level of engagement have been excellent. 

Rwanda is also a champion for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). If fully implemented, how do you think the AfCFTA can catalyze the African economy to benefit particularly young people and women? 

Africa has not optimized its full potential due to fragmented markets. We have some 54 countries with significant barriers to cross-border. 

The AfCFTA creates a market of over 1.3 billion people, with reduced barriers and free movement of people, goods and services. 

This will foster the growth of the continent, making it competitive in global trade. So, AfCFTA’s implementation is vital. We are already beginning to see some of the benefits. 

As we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the genocide against Tutsis, what final message do you have for Africans and the rest of the world? 

One, don't be a bystander when you see any form of discrimination, bigotry, or prejudice. Because that could build into a genocide. You must speak out. 

Second, you have to address the root causes of conflict that might grow into a tragedy. For example, hate speech. 

Third, we have to build institutions that provide a voice for the people, accountability and justice. 

Lastly, we must build free and fair societies. 

The lessons of Rwanda should be taken very seriously. The tragedy that befell Rwanda could befall any country.

Also in this issue

Football saved me from genocide; now I promote peace with it

Kwibuka30: Learning from the past, safeguarding the future against genocide

REMEMBER.UNITE.RENEW.

Claver Irakoze: Bridging Generations Through the Memory of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda

We must confront the legacy of slavery, tackle systemic racism

Reflecting on the brutal Transatlantic Slave Trade