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When I write in English I use "I" a lot. Especially when I talk about something I have done or an experiment or any thing. My English is upper intermediate. What is the reason behind this? Which skill should I improve to solve this issue?

Have you noticed how many I's I have used in this post? :)

Macit
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    When you speak or write in the first person, it's not remarkable that you find yourself using the first person pronoun! You can say "When writing in English..." instead of "When I write in English." You can say "...when talking about something.." instead of "...when I talk about something..." – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Jun 30 '17 at 21:57
  • Some usage examples would be helpful. It could be a language issue, but then again some people are only interested in themselves. I don't think limiting the use of "I" is a problem in itself, as long as the usage is grammatical. I guess that is not your issue, since you said "My English is upper intermediate". – user3169 Jun 30 '17 at 23:02
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    Why do you describe this as an "issue"? "I" is a common word. This post seems bizarre, like if you asked for advice on how to use the word "the" less often. Using a certain word "a lot" is not a problem; using a word too much is, and you haven't given any explanation of why you think you use "I" too much. – sumelic Jul 01 '17 at 01:07
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    @sumelic I believe the real problem is sentence variety, not overusing "I". For that reason, I recently updated my answer to shift focus to that topic. – James Martin Jul 01 '17 at 01:38
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    Please consider reopening this question. It's actually a very well-focused request to illustrate ways of varying sentence structure in English—an important part of learning the language for an intermediate-level learner. Foreign-language learners often find themselves sticking to relatively few, "safe", "known" sentence structures; at some point, they need to see what freedom the language really offers. At least, that's what my Italian teacher told me at one point. :) There's an opportunity here to write a good answer not only for the OP but for many intermediate-level learners. – Ben Kovitz Jul 01 '17 at 03:02
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    @ColleenV Chiming in to +1 Ben. When I first looked at the question, I thought "too broad" immediately. Then after a facile snark ("Stop talking about yourself") I realized that the question is not about "talking about myself". It's about how to break out of the safety cage that Ben mentions. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Jul 01 '17 at 03:14
  • @BenKovitz I'm not sure about how it's usually done on SE, but, though OP is getting at something important, the question isn't written in a way that makes it easy for other askers to find. I'd go for either significant revision to the existing question, or opening another, more effectively-worded question, rather than re-opening it as-is. – James Martin Jul 01 '17 at 04:22
  • @Lijero I agree that the question is difficult to find by computer search. Any idea how to correct that? Then again, maybe an(other) answer would naturally tend to correct it. – Ben Kovitz Jul 01 '17 at 05:15
  • @BenKovitz Even with another answer, the title of the page would still be confusing. I figure the entire thing should be rewritten (either in-place or as a new question), to specifically be about sentence variety. I'm not really sure how it should be rewritten though; I'd probably end up writing something too broad (I wonder if multiple, more specific questions would be necessary?). I'll add that my answer probably wouldn't be suitable as-is, because it was written as a response to the OP instead of whatever general guideline(s) the new question might ask about. – James Martin Jul 01 '17 at 06:05

2 Answers2

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There is nothing wrong with using "I" and you can't really use it "too much". A more reasonable concern would be not having enough sentence variety, and what appears to be using "I" too much is just a symptom of that.

  1. You can use -ing verb forms instead of writing the subject ("I") in each dependent clause. Compare "when I write in English" to "when writing in English", and "when I talk about something" to "when talking about something".

  2. The subject ("I") can also be removed from independent clauses by using the passive voice. Compare "which skill should I improve" to "which skill could be improved", and "how many I's I have used" to "how many I's have been used".

  3. Often, reusing possessives like "my" is not necessary. In "rewrite my post to get rid of the I's" you already referred to the post, so you can simply say "the post" instead of "my post".

  4. You can also describe things themselves instead of your experience of them, for example "The water was very cold" instead of "I thought the water was very cold", unless your experience is relevant to the discussion.

Remember, these are techniques to improve variety, and overusing them simply would make it harder to read!

P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
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James Martin
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  • One can use "I" too much. Such a person often talks about himself so much he quickly becomes a bore and a poor conversationalist. – green_ideas Jul 02 '17 at 01:27
  • @Clare That's not what the asker intended. The asker is specifically asking about writing style, and you can talk about yourself too much without "I", too. For more information, you can see the comment chain on the OP, in which we're trying to improve the clarity of the question, to prevent confusion like your own (there have been three independent incidences of "stop talking about yourself" jokes that all were retracted by their authors). In addition, the question originally asked a bit more directly about writing style, but that component was edited out for other reasons. – James Martin Jul 02 '17 at 03:44
  • If the user is asking about writing style the question is offtopic. Comments are not part of the question. – green_ideas Jul 02 '17 at 20:12
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Since you have mentioned experiments—scientific writing tends to use passive constructions that omit the doer. You can readily avoid the first person in that kind of writing.

TimR
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    Maybe it's OK in scientific writing, but very often that makes for horrible reading. –  Jul 01 '17 at 15:22