Explicating Tacit and Implicit Knowledge of First Person Use in English Academic Writing

It has traditionally and commonly been held that academic writing is impersonal. However, personal intervention has also been emerging as another strategy in academic text. Despite previous research on first person use in English academic writing, there are still a number of writers who are not comfortable to use first person pronouns or patient with others’ using them. The subtle knowledge of first person in academic writing may still remain tacit and implicit. In line with explicating the tacit and implicit knowledge of first person use, this paper carries out a qualitative analysis in terms of two aspects: breaking down existing functions into component subcategories and illustrating single-authoring scholars’ use of first person plurals. The case study of 20 Research Articles (RAs) in academic discourse analysis comes up with subdivisions of the two most frequent first person functions: recounting the research process and guiding the reader through the text. The study also shows that single authoring scholars had the reader in mind when using first person plural subject pronouns rather than singular ones. The study draws attention to authorial presence in the teaching of academic writing.