How do you feel about the first person? I am writing a chapter at the mo' and always introduce my chapter structure and key ideas using it. I am a humanities student and hate having to fall into passive phrases that attempt to mask subjectivity or the actual process of thinking.... hmmmm, but it doesn't sound as fancy as a more passive approach...

I've always been told to avoid first-person completely, and I'm humanities too. It is possible to write quite emphatically and to show the thought process without using "I".

I'm humanities / Soc Sci and have been told to avoid the first person at all costs. I agree that it is just as easy to be clear and emphatic without it. Try "this thesis takes X as its point of departure then addresses it by X" or "this thesis asserts"...

I was given the (frankly bizarre) advice to treat your thesis as if you are a ventriloquist and the thesis is a puppet called "this thesis"...

I'm in humanities too, & agree with Bilbo & Sleepyhead.

I'm a humanities/sci mutant hybrid and definitely no first person. My own personal dislike is having to use a very dry style - no humour.

Interesting question - I'm currently finding it difficult to not slip the odd 'I' into my conclusion. Personally, I don't like using first person.

I've never been warned about not using it, but stylistically it doesn't seem to look or read very well.

Doing my PhD in a particular field within medical sciences. First person usage in the thesis are a big no-no for our department and, in fact, the whole Uni.

using the first person is a must for me. it's the only thing i can live with, personally.
if your university provides you with rules prohibiting it, that's one thing. but if not, and you're worried "because it doesn't sound sophisticated", then ask yourself: do you want to write a sophisticated thesis or do you want to write a thesis that sounds sophisticated?

obviously, it can't all be "about me". so i use the I with consideration. i use it then when i actually did, thought something, and it is relevant that it was me. but i will never use passive constructions to hide myself.
it takes some thought, but IMO those papers that use the I exactly where needed, not never and not always and not randomly, appear most sophisticated to me.

Shani - just curiuos - have you published a journal article using the first person? I thought they all edited it out.

I'm in the humanities - history - and I have have been told, by a particularly pernickety supervisor, to not only avoid I, but not to refer to 'this thesis' or 'this chapter' or 'this section', to refer only to content. It takes some grammatical gymnastics to avoid both, I can tell you! I once took his book and circled all the times he'd used the first person and referred to chapters of the book in the introduction, just to makes me feel better. I recommend it.

I would avoid 'I' unless it sounds really silly without it. It should be used sparingly, anyway. The not referring to 'your thesis' etc seems less common - just a cross I have to bear, obviously!

smilodon, well, i haven't published much overall yet. one theory/lit-review article in a non-peer-reviewed grad-student journal. didn't use any first person in that article. another publication, non-PhD-research related, that compares conditions for PhD students and young researchers in the UK and Switzerland, has several "I"s as it builds on personal experience. This was peer-reviewed but a minor journal. I've written a co-authored paper for a working paper series where I used "we". My masters thesis had I's in it.
but you know, i don't use I everywhere and for everything. i don't write "in my opinion" or "i think". however i might write "thus, we use this theoretical concept rather than that one".

i use I when i'm describing what I am doing. so, mostly in the introduction, conclusion, and in connecting bits. "in this paper, i will start with a, followed by b, concluding c"; "after having discussed A, i now turn to B"; "i have demonstrated that C". when i'm actually demonstrating C, there are usually no I's. but when i am saying that i did demonstrate C, well, it's me who demonstrated C. no-one else, not "the paper", "the article", "the author". just me. so why not say it?
using the first person also helps to avoid ambuiguities that sometimes border on plagiarism. if you write "it is argued here that...", is that your work/achievement/argument? or are you using someone's? but when you use I to mark your own arguments and active tenses for other people's arguments, there's no danger of that. you don't plagiarise; and you don't short-sell yourself either, as your own thoughts/contributions are clearly marked as yours.

I'm a Social Scientist and have been specifically told to write in the first person and not use passive phrases.... I have to say I only rarely use 'I' though.......

I don't us 'I' because basically I'm not sure if my work warrants it yet! Think you have to be well up the tree to be able to use that in my area (education)and I'm used to using the 'it was noted that' kind of style. I wouldn't wnat to risk it as you never know if the examiner is going to approve.

Sorry for my radio silence people - thanks for your replies. I'm 2/3 of the way through writing my chapter, so will be back when I have finished to procrastinate!