First Person Or Third Person Type Of Writing
As a general rule, formal writing should be done in third person. However, there are instances where using the first person is acceptable. In this article, we are going to look at the examples of when to use the first person narrative and when to use the third person narrative.
First Person
- Reflective type of writing allows one to talk more about their personal experiences which may include, particular counseling courses, midwifery and nursery, Teaching, and social work courses
- You can utilize words such as I me and my
- It is thoughtful to use the recommended reflective cycle to assist with the reflections about your personal experiences and actions
- Ensure you do waste your word count on organization with just explaining what happened. This includes, ‘what’ and ‘How’
- Allow enough space for elaborating ‘why’ you felt that way
Third Person
- Most Academic writing takes the Third Person kind of writing since it is a less subjective work
- You should always avoid words like ‘I’ ‘me’ and ‘my’
- Try ‘This Assignment task focuses on …’ rather than ‘I will focus …’
- Academic writing in the third person makes the Assignment task appear not too personal – and the possibility that any other person could have written the same Assignment task using the available sources
OTHER USEFUL WRITING RULES:
1. Avoid Contractions
Write in full words ‘did not’ and ‘is not’ rather than using didn’t and isn’t
2. Avoid conversational phrases and metaphors
Normally, it is common for us to use phrases that are common in a conversation or the number of clichés or metaphors we use to explain our ideas and thoughts. Leave out or rephrase these sorts of phrases and words
- Avoid phrases such as ‘sort of’ and ‘kind of’ not unless you want to write ‘a bit’ or ‘slightly’
- Avoid phrase such as ‘you know’, the reader cannot read your mind not unless you tell them what you are talking about or provide evidence
- Avoid a word like; ‘gonna’ try ‘until the end of’
- Avoid phrase like ‘the bitter end’ try ‘until the end of’
- Avoid sentence structures such as that wasn’t half of it because… try ‘that was not the whole issue because’
- Avoid the description ‘lots of stuff’ and be more explicit, try ‘lots of’ and identify what you are discussing.