Developing an academic voice: elminating "you" and your metalanguage

What is metadiscourse and why should I avoid it?

Metadiscourse is when you are self-referential in your writing. Use of phrases like "I believe" or "I am writing about" or "In the paragraph before" are all referring back to yourself as writer or the act of writing the essay. These bits of metadiscourse tend to be distracting, pulling the reader's attention from the ideas being discussed to focus instead on the writer and his or her process of writing. Though it is true that every piece of writing is authored and perhaps avoiding any reference to the writer is merely presents an illusion of objectivity, it is nevertheless conventional to avoid such discourse markers. Lastly, ideas expressed in your essays are implicitly yours, so you do no need to say "I believe", "I think", or "In my opinion." These are phrases we like to throw into our speech and writing to qualify our ideas. Women especially have been found to use these types of qualifying discourse markers to avoid sounding too authoritative. However, in your academic writing, you are the expert and you should sound like one. Check out the two examples below to see what a difference metadiscourse makes:

A. There are many definitions of the word grassroot and I tried to find where the root of the word started. I found it started in the United States in 1912 by the Progressive Party. One other definition that I discovered on the Internet describes grassroots as designing political processes where the decision making authority is shifted to the organization's lowest levels rather than being isolated at the top. Grassroots movements are important because I think that democratic power is best exercised when it is vested in the local community rather than in isolated individuals.

B. There are many definitions of the word grassroot and where the root of the word started. It started in the United States in 1912 by the Progressive Party. One other definition on the Internet describes grassroots as designing political processes where the decision making authority is shifted to the organization's lowest levels rather than being isolated at the top. Grassroots movements are important because democratic power is best exercised when it is vested in the local community rather than in isolated individuals.

Avoiding 2nd person "You"

Read the following paragraph and rewrite it in the third person, using pronouns and eliminating the use of 2nd person you. Make sure that your indefinite pronouns agree with their antecedents.

"Another example of commitment ouside of marriage is one that is made when you make a financial decision to obligate yourself to a signed contract. An example of this would be purchasing a new car. Once you have decided to on the car, you want and have to come to an agreement on the terms. You then sign a contract that you are expected to fulfill. If you do not adhere to this formal commitment, you will have to face getting the car repossessed by the company whom you purchased the car from."

Student versions that solve this problem:

"Another example of commitment outside of marriage is one that is made when one makes a financial decision to obligate oneself to a signed contract. An example of this would be purchasing a new car. Once someone has decided on the car, he or she wants and has come to an agreement on the terms. When one signs a contract that person is expected to fulfill the terms of that contract. If that person does not adhere to this formal commitment, he or she faces getting the car repossessed by the company which it was purchased from."

"Another example of commitment outside of marriage is one that is made when a financial decision is made to make an obligation to a signed contract. An example of this would be purchasing a new car. Once an individual has decided on a car, he wants to have come to an agreement on the terms. The individual would then sign a contract and be expected to fulfill it. If he does not adhere to this formal commitment, he/ will have to face getting the car repossessed by the company from whom he purchased the car from."