The Peter effect in early experimental education research.

J. Little. 2003. Journal of technical writing and communication 33, no. 1:41-63.

"One of the signatures of scientific writing is its ability to present the claims of science as if they were 'untouched by human hands.' In the early years of experimental education, researchers achieved this by adopting a citational practice that led to the sedimentation of their cardinal method, the analysis of variance, and their statistical framework from its historical conditions of production. Researchers suppressed their own agency through the use of passive voice and nominalization. With their own agency out of the way, they imbued the methods, results, and presentational devices themselves with the active agency of the situation through the use of personification. Such a depiction creates the impression that the researchers and audience stand on equal epistemic ground as interested witnesses to the autonomous activity of a third paw, the method, which chums out the brute facts of science."