I always thought that the use of "I" was a no no in academic writing, so I avoided using it. But now I started writing the actual thesis, I get so confused with the advice I get from books and journal articles with regards to referring to oneself. For example this one:
"If you do decide to avoid the use of 'I' at all, don't substitute 'we' and don't move into pompous circumlocutions such as 'the author'"
What do you think? How do you handle this problem? If using "the author" is pompous, and if we are not supposed to use "passive voice" then how do we refer to ourselves in the thesis?