How to avoid over use of "I" in papers? I'm writing a Design Report. This is about 12k words long.
Because it's about research I've done and certain choices I've made, I'm using a lot of &quot;I&quot;. Personally I don't think this is a problem, but my mentors have told me my papers are annoying to read, because they contain a lot of &quot;I&quot;.
Example:

For the health belief model I had to discover four specific points.
Perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits and
perceived barriers. Because I noticed people aren’t very open when
talking about covid, I had to be careful how I asked questions. First
I let them rate the severity of each point from 1 to 5. Then after
they answered all the questions I’m asking them to justify their
answers. Doing it this way gives me answers that are more truthful.

I'm curious how I can make my writing more academic in general. Right now it's a bit like I'm writing a diary.
It's generally accepted to use passive voice in scientific papers. This would turn the cited paragraph into:

For the health belief model, four specific points were discovered
(taken into consideration?): perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits and perceived barriers. It was noticed
people aren’t very open when talking about covid, so the questions
were asked in the following manner. First, they were requested to rate the
severity of each point from 1 to 5. After they answered all the
questions, they were asked for justification of their replies. This
way ensures that respondents are more truthful.

Additionally, to avoid repetitive use of the same words, I highly recommend to look for synonyms in a thesaurus. There are also programmes that check English grammar in a text, perhaps it's also a good option for you.