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I currently finish my bachelor thesis in computer science. And sometimes I wonder if I write too personal, since my thesis should be an academic piece.

More specific, I wrote a computer program (which has no name at the moment) and I often don't know how to refer to that program and me working on that program.
Can I say something like: "My program consists of two parts ...", or "I implemented a function that does ..."?
Or should I be always completely objective and say "The program of this thesis consists of two parts..." and "The program of this thesis has a function that does ...", which feels a bit counterintuitive.

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    This is about writing style, which ELU doesn't do. Theses and style are more on topic on Academia. Commented Aug 1, 2022 at 8:02
  • Could you write a couple of example sentences in full? This would give a starting point. Commented Aug 1, 2022 at 8:32
  • Give the program a name. It's much easier if you can write "We used an Excel function to do something" than if you have to write something like "We used a function of the spreadsheet software developed by Microsoft" each time.
    – user9482
    Commented Aug 1, 2022 at 8:36
  • It is your thesis, so the program has been written by you. So you describe the properties of the program "The program can be used to ...", "The output shown in Figure X demonstrates ..."
    – Polygnome
    Commented Aug 1, 2022 at 9:29
  • @FedericoPoloni i edited the post so hopefully it's a bit clearer now.
    – Timo
    Commented Aug 1, 2022 at 9:53

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Academic style values clarity and conciseness. Calling it "my program" is entirely appropriate according to these criteria as any alternative is much longer without giving additional clarity. If you want, you can use the plural (our program), but this is a bit old-fashioned.

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  • From an attribution perspective, using “my” rather than “our” is better as it leaves no doubt as to the author of the said program. Commented Aug 1, 2022 at 12:37

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