Sometimes the question of 1st person (active) vs. 3rd person (passive) styles in scientific writing comes up, with students, colleagues, reviewers or editors. Should we write "I solved the equation ..." or "The equation was solved ..."?
In chemistry class, in my freshman year, only 3rd person was accepted in the lab reports. Later, when I was specializing in theoretical physics, I was told that effective communication is what matters. Do whatever you want! For me it was an easy choice. Writing 1st person feels more free and natural, at least in the fields I have been working; mathematics, physics and high-performance computing.
Students I supervise get the same choice that I had. Most of them write 1st person. I tell the students to write "we" in publications with two or more authors (another easy publication for the supervisor, the student did all the work). But write "I" in your thesis, because you're not the King (or Queen) of Winterland.
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Interesting, though I finished my career as a scientist writing almost in 3rd person and am writing now only blog articles in 1st person. @tttabata at Twitter
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