Skip to Main Content

Academic Writing - Education & CCSC students: Pronouns

Resources to support Morling College Counselling, Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care, and Education students to understand and employ the conventions of academic writing appropriate to graduate and post-graduate levels of study.

Pronouns

Pronouns

Use the first person when writing about your own perspective. Do not use the royal we. The APA Manual states:

To avoid ambiguity in attribution, use the first person rather than the third person when describing the work you did as part of your research and when expressing your own views. If you are writing a paper by yourself, use the pronoun “I”; do not use the pronoun “we” to refer to yourself if you do not have coauthors. If you are writing a paper with coauthors, use the pronoun “we.” Do not refer to yourself or your coauthors in the third person as “the author(s)” or “the researcher(s).” (APA, 2020, p. 120)

Reference

American Psychological Association (APA). (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).

© 2016 Morling College. Morling College is an affiliated institution with the Australian College of Theology (CRICOS Provider 02650E). Morling College Counselling (CRICOS Provider 03265F).