Talking about Research in Secondaries: use "I" or "We"?

[Faii]

Hey all,
I am 1st author on a paper, with two other undergraduates and a high school student (lucky dog!) and for a few of my secondaries I need to discuss my research and what I did. I don't want to come off as snarky or rude by saying "I" however I think using "We" may not necessarily convey that I actually did at least one repetition of each experiment in addition to designing the experiments themselves. Or would this just be assumed based on the 1st authorship?

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[MSclerosis]

A lot of journals these days ask authors to specify their individual contributions to the project.

Describe what you did.

 

[ac62994]

They already know you're the first author.

Be humble and remember that the path you've chosen relies heavily on teamwork.

 

[Faii]

They already know you're the first author.

Be humble and remember that the path you've chosen relies heavily on teamwork.

Normally I would always use we, however since the reader may want to know my specific contributions I was unsure of how to approach it since, by virtue of being 1st author, I was involved in every aspect. We it is then!
Thank you for the feedback.

 

[LizzyM]

I'd go with "we" for a sentence on your hypothesis as in "we set out to determine ...." then use "I" to describe the things you did alone. If you supervised others, mention that. If you did the same things that others did say "we used PCR...." or whatever and add "I personally did at least one repetition of each procedure." or however you would describe it. Dont lose sight of the fact that this is a team sport. Adcoms and med school faculty put a premium on teamwork.l

 

[Doug Underhill]

I used "we" to describe mine.

A first-author paper speaks for itself: you don't need to tell the adcoms that you personally did most of the work. If you DIDN'T do most of the work and you got first author, that would be suspect.