system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Other authors in journal don't follow formatting requirements-- should I ask the editor if I have to?

I've finished a paper after 6 months of work, and I've found that the philosophy journal I'm submitting to doesn't allow self-referential phrases like "I think". I'm confused as to whether this also includes first-person plural phrases like "Let us examine..." or "Before we move on...", or references to the essay ("This essay will..."). Finally, I've noticed that other articles in this journal do use phrases like "I think". 

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I want to write the editor and ask, but I've already bothered him twice, firstly asking if they'd be interested in this essay (before I decided to finish writing it), and secondly asking if there was a word count for my kind of article. So I don't want to bother him again or seem unprofessional, but I'm also at a loss for how much I need to change my essay, if at all.
gpt
So your options are to ask and bug him a third time but get an answer, or to do the best you can and submit what you have and possibly find out then that you did it wrong? 

You sound a little hesitant to put yourself out there. I'd recommend finding a colleague who had previously used that journal and asking her/him all your questions, searching any related website thoroughly (I'd imagine word count would be stipulated there, if it is a requirement), modeling what you have after existing articles in that journal, and then asking remaining questions to the editor.