## 9.2. Answers to frequently asked questions

- Should I write “I” or “We”?

Can you refer to yourself as the person who formulated the research questions, constructed hypotheses, collected and analyzed the data, or should you use an impersonal expression? My personal preference is that you write in an active voice, with sentences like “I have hypothesized that…” rather than “In this study, it has been hypothesized that…”. In the discussion of results you can engage the reader by saying “In table 4, we see that…” The use of personal pronouns however is controversial, and some supervisors may be heavily opposed to it. Check with your supervisor to hear her preference.

- Should I write in the present or the past tense?

If you are describing how your research was designed and carried out, it is my distinct preference that you do that in the past tense: “The questionnaire provided 27 categories to measure pre-tax household income, as well as the options ‘don’t know’ and ‘do not want to say’. In addition, 84 participants did not provide an answer to the question.” Some style guides suggest you use the present tense (“We measure pre-tax household income in 27 categories”). Consult the style guide provided by your program and ask your supervisor what her preference is. Whatever you choose, write consistently, and use only one tense.

- Which terms should I define and explain?

When you use terms that are not commonly used or controversial you will need to define them. Do this the first time you use them. Otherwise the reader will wonder what you mean by the term, or worse: assume it means something else than what you mean. If you do not write your thesis in English, avoid the use of Anglicisms – words you found in the articles you read that you do not know how to translate. The same holds for words in other languages, though some Germanisms really have no good translation in other languages, like ‘Schadenfreude’. If you leave the original words between single quotation marks (like ‘commitment’ or ‘corporate social responsibility’) and you do not translate them, the reader may suspect you have not translated them because you do not really know what they mean. If you write your thesis in English, the use of single quotation marks often signals a lack of distance to the original text you are summarizing. Also, words between quotation marks suggest that you disagree with using them or that they have negative connotations for you. If so, explain these opinions, or better still: avoid the terms and use more neutral words.

- How far should I go in explaining things?

This is a question I have often heard from students. The answer I usually give to this question is: make sure that an intelligent lay person understands what your question is, what you’re expecting to find, how you designed the research and why you did that the way you did, what your findings are, and what they mean. Do not write for yourself, or for your supervisor. Your thesis may also be evaluated by a second faculty member, perhaps even from outside your institution. If all goes well, your thesis contributes new findings and insights to previous scholarship. Assume your reader is intelligent. Write for your mother, or your uncle Teddy – someone who doesn’t know much about the topic and the research you’re building on. If you really dive into the literature, it will not take much time before you know more about it than your supervisor, let alone your second evaluator.