Using I or We and Foreign Language Use

[Daniel Oliveira]

Hi,

I have 2 questions.

First, when describing my Master's research, do I use "I did ..." or "We did ...", as all I did was with the help of my advisor?

Second, can I use a little foreign language in my SoP? Since my prospective advisor speaks the language, I thought about putting the real name of an Institution (a prestigious high school) inside parentheses.

Thank you

Edited November 18, 2016 by Daniel Oliveira

[fuzzylogician]

1. I would use the singular pronoun. If you find that lacking, you might just add, "under the supervision of X, I did [blah]". 

2. It's fine to use the real name. I'd also make sure you give an English version of the name. And although you didn't ask, it's better if it doesn't feel like name dropping but is actually relevant to the larger point you are making. 

[pvfm]

Hello Daniel
I agree with fuzzylogician. I just want to add that your SoP will be read by people from the admission commitee, which your prospective advisor may not be part of. Even if he/she speaks the language and knows your high school, the admission comitte may not be familiar with the name. So, as fuzzylogician said, just make sure that mentioning your high school name will support your argument.

PS: It's good to see people from Brazil here.

[TakeruK]

In my field, it's acceptable to use the "royal we" to describe work you did. You will even see single author papers writing statements like "We set the telescope to XYZ setting and took 5 images." or "When we write the equation in XYZ notation, we see that the momentum depends only on ABC." (I probably would not do this though but I have yet to write a single author paper).

However, for statements of purpose or other essays we write for funding/admission purposes, it's a good idea to use "I" instead of "we". It emphasizes your contribution to these collaborations. This also allows you to use both "I" and "we" to distinguish between things you did on your own and things you did alongside with someone else.