writing style - Is it poor form to start too many sentences with I?


I often find myself writing a lot of comments to blog posts and responses on forums, and have noticed a tendency to start a lot of sentences with 'I'. 'I think...', 'I had no idea', 'I used to...' etc. Is there a general style guideline about avoiding this, or is is acceptable when you're writing opinionated pieces?


Repetition in general is poor style in my book, but when I start to shift around my sentences to avoid starting them with 'I', they tend to sound too stilted.



Answer



It is helpful to consider in each case whether the emphasis of the sentence should be yourself or something else. I've struggled for a while now to completely purge the passive from my own writing, and by swinging completely the other way, I ended up with awkward sentences that failed to get my point across in some instances. I suggest emphasizing "I" when the fact of your opinion is itself the subject of the sentence or thought, and de-emphasizing it when some other subject should take the lead--whether or not this means using passive voice (see, e.g., the first sentence of this post).


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