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Some people consider the use of "I" in a paper to be a great evil. Others, however, consider the use of the passive voice to be an even greater evil.

I will be presenting a paper at a competition, and I don't know what the judges prefer. If I don't want to make anyone mad, which convention is safer to follow?

user1577636
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    Even single authors oftentimes write "we" – mathse Apr 14 '14 at 14:32
  • @mathse True, but I want to make certain the judges know that I did the work... – user1577636 Apr 14 '14 at 14:34
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    If you want to make certain the judges know you did the work, announce at the beginning that you did the work. That should settle that. – Gerry Myerson Apr 14 '14 at 14:37
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    Plus, in a less formal environment, the "I" is ok, I think, if not excessively made us of. E.g. here: http://www.maths.bris.ac.uk/~mampsj/Binomial.pdf – mathse Apr 14 '14 at 14:42
  • A "competition"...of papers? That bewilders me... – DonAntonio Apr 14 '14 at 14:49
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    I try to reserve "we/us" to indicate "myself, and you, the reader, who joins me on this intellectual adventure", in constructions like "We take $\alpha$ to be ..." or "Let us embed the figure in $n$-dimensional space ..."; mixing that usage with the Royal We can be a little confusing (but I don't believe it's too big of a deal). You can always use "this author" to signify your specific contribution, with @Gerry's suggestion to get it out of the way early: "The following discusses this author's research into (whatever)...". In any case ... Doesn't the competition suggest a style guide? – Blue Apr 14 '14 at 15:16
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    Come to think of style guides: "Mathematical Writing" by Knuth is a worthwhile (and free!) read. The sixth "especially important" point (page 2) addresses the use of "we", stating that "[The usage] is not a formal equivalent of 'I'.". – Blue Apr 14 '14 at 15:22
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    I agree with Blue, as an undergrad, I have never collaborated with anyone, my proofs and assignments are always by myself alone. However, I always use we, and use it as "myself and the reader." I write my proofs as if someone was going to read along and work along to be convinced, that's why I do that. – Jonathan Hebert Apr 14 '14 at 15:31
  • Ok. But should I stick to passive voice in the abstract? – user1577636 Apr 14 '14 at 18:31
  • @user1577636: Perhaps if you post the abstract, we can offer more-specific advice. By the way, you might also browse Academia.SE; for instance, "What to use instead of academic 'we' when describing an experiment?". – Blue Apr 14 '14 at 22:17

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