I once had a student in a college course ask me if he was permited to use the first person in a term paper. Ugh. I heard a rumor that the Education Dept. at my school would automatically give an F for the use of "I". Education Departments are generally the academically weakest in any university. "I" is better than the royal "we", and "the author" is downright stilted. Note that the royal "we" is still first person, just not singular.
I regard the first person singular as a problem akin to (but less serious than) that of passive voice: it's nice to minimize it, but there is no reason to be a teetotaler about it. IIRC, K&R did not used "I", "we", or "the authors". K&R were geniuses (even if they indent 8 instead of 4 spaces). There is a reason they are so rarely matched in technical writing: genius is a rare commodity. JMNorris
