I am writing my masters thesis.  My instructor told me not to use "I, we, us, his, her, he, she" in the thesis anywhere.  Are all these words prohibited in thesis writing?       I am writing my thesis in cloud security (computer science), specifically homomorphic encryption in the cloud.
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Are there written or unwritten rules for avoiding the use of first-person while writing research papers? I was advised at the beginning of my grad school to avoid use of first person - but I still don't know why I should do this.  I have seen that, at many places, authors refer to themselves are "the authors" and not "we". At the same time, I have also seen use of first-person to a good extent.    Do these things differ in different Journals and Conferences (and in different disciplines as well - mine happens to be CS)?
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I was told the correct usage is for example: &quot;My wife and me&quot; but I hear often &quot;I and my wife&quot; or &quot;my wife and I&quot;. Google gives 34M results for &quot;My wife and I&quot; and 909K results for &quot;My wife and me&quot; Which is the correct form and why? It occurred to me that maybe it could depend on the rest of the phrase? (subject or object)  &quot;My wife and I are eating an apple&quot; &quot;You can see my wife and me in this picture&quot;
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I want to talk to someone about the house that my wife and I own.  Saying, for example, "My wife's and my house is awesome," sounds a bit funny to me.  What's the best way to express this?  Clarification  I'm asking specifically about the grammar of multiple nouns in possessive form.  I'm particularly curious if it's possible to do this with a first-person pronoun (me).  I am capable of rephrasing this in other ways - my question is not how to express the idea, but about this particular grammatical construction, if it is even legal.
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I am writing my master of science thesis and I am not sure whether I should add some of the code I have written: they are not proper programs, but more like input files to be fed to a commercial program (Nastran) very popular in my field.  My concerns are related to the fact that I am not making any discovery, just applying the things I have learned reading the manual. Still, I feel the code will make the effort I put into the thesis to also learn this language clearer.
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In a couple of weeks, I have to present my master thesis to both my professors (supervisors) and family and friends. After the title page, I immediately present the main novelty of my thesis (instead of first presenting a lot of "blablabla" about the literature and stuff).   What would be a suitable tense to do this?  For instance:      I found/ have found/find that [description of findings]   or     This thesis shows/has shown/showed that [description of findings]   I think you'll get the point. It is basically whether to use the present simple/ present perfect or past simple.  EDIT: My thesis is about the effects of unconventional monetary policy announcements by the Fed on European government bond markets. So w.r.t. to the comment of C26 below, it is something happened in the past. However, I also examined through which channels these announcements influence government bond markets in the eurozone. So this is more like a process; something that is most likely also true in the future (i.e. when these announcements will occur again).
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There are some questions on gender-neutral pronouns both  and on .  User Christine Letts :     In academia, there is currently a   movement toward using the feminine   pronoun at all times.   I wonder why that is. I came across several examples on papers I read, but the only one I can remember at the moment is a book: Seth Godin's . While some might not be comfortable labeling it as part of academia, it suits my point perfectly. Every time he refers to a person, he uses the feminine pronoun.  User Senseful  the following, potentially identifying affirmative action as the precursor for this trend.     I remember reading somewhere that it   was recommended to use the opposite of   what most people stereotype the   profession as. So, for example, when   talking about a chiropractor, you   would use "her", and when talking   about a secretary, you would use   "his".   So, where do you think this trend comes from?
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I was wondering if any American writers could give me some advice as to whether the following expressions/vocab are used and understood in the US:  (words in bold are the ones I'm asking about. Some words are also in inverted commas)   The living room of a house -- is this expression ok? Do you ever say "front room" or "sitting room"? If it's a massive house with a huge entertainment area, can you say "living area"? I was tickled -- is this expression ok? It means happy. "My college mate wants to hang out at my digs" - meaning my place, or college dorm. Would digs be used? Is college mate an ok expression for someone you go to college with? In the real world, do people stop on the shoulder or the hard shoulder of a highway or is either fine? Is median strip used for the partition between 2 lanes of a highway going in different directions? "He takes the piss out of every banker he meets" -- meaning he mocks them. Is this used? Can you say "I'm pissed off at him" (angry) or does it have to be: "I'm pissed at him." "I called my parents' landline (fixed home phone)." Is landline ok? "I tried on the jeans in the changing room." Is this ok or does it have to be fitting room or something else? Is the word "thingamajig" used in American English? "I can't walk on my ropey leg" -- meaning damaged or injured or tired. Can ropey be used? Security guards are surveilling the place. This verb is showing up as misspelt but I see it sometimes. Is there another spelling or verb?   13.In the real world, do people in the US use MPH or KPH as the unit of speed when driving?   Is the expression "Calm my jitters" acceptable? (calm my nerves) If you pull up to a mansion surrounded by a fence with very thick metal bars all around it, is the word "fence" appropriate or is there a better word. I think that gate would only be for a door in a fence or something? Is the expression "It cost a pretty penny" ever used in the US? Is the expression "It took every ounce of strength" used in the US? Can the word "skiff" be used in the US for a sort of flat-bottomed row boat?   Thank you so much to anyone willing to give advice about these points. Though I appreciate any input, I think it would be most useful to hear from actual American writers to avoid possible confusion.   Many thanks!  Follow up questions:  Thanks to all those who gave their very useful opinions. I have a couple more questions for anyone willing to give advice:   What do you call the area (let's say on the 10th floor) in front of an elevator door? Is there a specific word like "the landing"? When you enter a house (without a mud room), there is a space just past the front door which is not really a room, but it's like the entrance way/hallway between the front door and other rooms like the living room, study. Is this called a "hallway"? It's not a lobby, obviously as that would be for a hotel or something. Can it be the "entrance hall"? If you are using WASP-y as an adjective, do you have to write it like "WASP-y" or "WASPy". I'm guessing "waspy" hasn't become a thing yet?   Thank you!
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I'm at the stage in writing my dissertation where most of the substantive aspects are finished and the only tasks left are more or less administrative. However, one thing that I've been avoiding is writing the "Acknowledgements" section. Obviously I will thank my supervisor, committee members, other faculty and staff that have played a meaningful role in my education, other students who have been friends and co-workers, my close friends, and my family (in that order!), but I'm struggling with how to approach it. Does anyone have advice or hot tips about what to do or not do that they'd be willing to share? Is it possible to make it meaningful without sounding contrived or pedantic or disingenuous? Do I go with the standard disclaimer about how any errors that remain after getting all that wonderful help and support are mine alone...? Thanks!
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I am submitting a Ph.D. thesis fairly soon and my supervisor has flagged my use of capitalisation in "Section" and "Chapter" as possibly incorrect. I have googled about a bit and I see mixed opinions.  So my question is, when writing a computer science Ph.D. thesis, what is the correct way to capitalise "Section", "Chapter", "Appendix", "Figure", "Table", ... ?  For example, what is the correct capitalisation for the following:   "In Chapter 3, it was shown that..." "In the previous Section, a method was presented to..." "The graph in Figure 3 shows..."
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Does the use of "[s]he" as a gender-neutral pronoun prompt eye-rolling in the reader or is it generally accepted? I know it cannot be pronounced, but it seems to me a helpful contraction in written speech. Of course the sentence can be restructured, one can use formations such as "he or she," etc. but are such machinations necessary?
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Most people seem to stumble over this. The problem can arise with any multi-word phrase that needs a possessive but ends in S, and so sounds awkward using the clitic apostrophe-S. I've heard this particular one variously rendered as:   You guys' You guys's Your guys' / your guy's   What's you guys...your...guises...what's your take on it?
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I remember when staying a few months in the US years ago that I saw some people using the abbreviations below. However, I can't exactly remember in which contexts I encountered them, (whether I saw my teachers using them when writing something on the board, in papers or in personal notes etc.)  So my question is: Are those abbreviations below commonly used and in which contexts is it okay to use them (e.g. formal texts, personal notes,... or better only used in personal note taking?)         w/o without   w/ with   b/c because      PS: Are there similar abbreviations that are commonly used?
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Reading different specifications and manuals I've noticed that more often and often pronouns she or her are being used when some unknown person's behavior is described.  For example: "when user opens the first screen, let she be notified about something" or "let user input her address". Actually, I've seen more versatile examples but cannot remember anything nice now.   Is it a last-years tendency? Or is it something only UK-specific? Are there any rules about it? Or, maybe, is it applicable only for written document/spoken language?  I'm not an informant (as you've already guessed) and it's very important to me how should I write in official correspondence with British/US customers and not to hurt their feelings?
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Consider a group of 10 friends (Jack, Mike, Harry, Peter, Ian, Ted, Stoney, Julie, Maria, and Samantha) named 'Spartans' in some residence colony. They have collected money and bought a brand new car.   Is this structure possible?     Wow, what a sexy car that is   Yeah! That's Spartans'   Spartans'?  Ah, I mean Jack, Mike, Harry, Peter etc's.   Oh! Are they Spartans? I did not know.   Or it should be ...     Ah, I mean Jack's, Mike's, Harry's, Peter's and etc. or  Ah, I mean Jack, Mike, Harry, Peter's and etc.   I referred to lots of examples and found that etc. is generally applied to the nouns, verbs and almost anything but found no instance where it's used for the noun's possession.
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I recently read the following in a schoolbook:     Wrote the researchers, "[...]"   I wonder if this is correct English. I have seen it a couple of more times. Is this just a matter of preference? English doesn't really have a very liberal word order, unless you're writing poetry or the like.  Can anyone tell me what this is called? I found some information on subject-verb inversion, but it only seems to be when the object is in front, but in this case, the word order is verb-subject-object.
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I've been told to put "I" at the last part of the subject, as in "My sister and I walk to school." Is saying "I and my sister walk to school." wrong?
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I saw a spelling mistake on an SO question: submittion. That got me wondering, is there a name for the shift of ‑mit‑ to ‑miss‑ in submission, permission, admission and so on? Are there other patterns like this in English words? (Not simple stuff like dropping an e for confuse/confusion) and if so, are these patterns related to the language we took the word from?