IA passive voice vs active voice?

[Rey]

Hi people! I need a little bit of help. Here's the backstory:

When we first started working on our IAs, we had to read and grade a few sample ones. All of the ones we worked on in class were written in first person, all the way through (we did one on Florence Nightingale and one about modelling jumping horses) We also got two to do in our free time if we want to, which I did. All four essays seemed to be on the same level, but the two we did in class were graded about 2-3 marks higher, all from the communication and the personal engagement criteria.

So, I wrote mine in first person. There was also another reason why I chose an active voice: Most of the essay is about modelling my route from my house to the bus stop, so it is pretty hard and unnatural to avoid saying "the route I walk" or "my house" at least at a few points in the essay.

Another important thing is that the teacher who we have now, and who corrected our essays, is a different one from the one we had last year, who gave us those example essays. He, the new guy, is also like extremely upset that most people wrote their IAs in first person, like yelling at our class for five minutes upset... He wants everyone to rewrite them. He did listen to our logical reasoning about why we thought it was okay, but I am fairly certain he has no real clue whether or not it's okay, and he just doesn't want to lose his authority by saying so.

Either way, this is a very long explanation to my relatively simple question: In the end, he allowed me to decide for myself whether or not I want to rewrite my IA in a passive voice. I don't because I genuinely believe it is better this way. But he did get me quite worried... So, the question is, if I keep it as it is, and it gets sent off to moderation (very likely, given that there's literally seven people in my math class) will I be penalised for writing in an active voice? And, would a passive voice actually be a sort of advantage? Or is it like I thought it was, which is that the examiners don't care all that much as long as your IA is good?

Thanks for any insight/advice you guys might have  

[kw0573]

First / third voice doesn't matter. It may be easier to get your personal engagement out with the first voice, but it is not necessary. You should proofread for other important aspects such as accuracy of math and organization and originality instead of worrying about what tense to use. 

[FChaosi_]

Tense is not in the criteria. It does not matter at all.

 

[Rey]

That is what I thought too. However, his only comment on my first draft was the voice, and that I don't explain what one of the equations mean. The equation was actually explained, he just failed to notice it (like, he failed to notice one big ass in the middle of a page following the equation immediately?) But after pointing that out to him, I was left with only the voice thing to "fix"... I personally think that this essay is as good as it gets, I really liked working on it and gave it my very best from the beginning. So, I guess that could explain away the lack of flaws... Or maybe he just never really read it, which is also a likely possibility. Either was, I will leave the voice as it is, and just triple check the important stuff for the final draft. Thanks for your help