If you have the habit of always writing in the first person, get rid of it. Writing in third person also has its strengths and is crucial in expert writing.
Why Should You Choose Writing in Third Person?
When given the task to write, people often become too focused on the story and forget about its form in writing. Therefore, when the question of how to write a literary analysis is asked, we focus on the paper structure and the story, not on the way to tell it.
However, at the end, it all comes down to what your story becomes on paper.
What does this mean? It means that people need to learn how to write in third person, get a new perspective and make for deeper fiction. Third person writing can be the best and worst thing for your content and if you want to be a good writer, you simply must learn when and how to use it to tell a story.
Third person makes your writing less personal and therefore, more objective. Knowing this, you probably understand why it is required in all academic writing. As Olivia Erickson, an expert from best college essay writing service at xpertwriters.com says ‘third person writing is a rule of thumb in every academic paper’.
Does it only apply to academic writing? Surely, you should always use the third person for formal writing, but you can also choose to use it for creative writing purposes.
Where to Use Writing in the Third Person
In order to identify the best place to use the third person, you need to know what is writing in third person.
We’d define writing in third person as crafting content that does not include the subjective pronouns, such as ‘you’ or ‘I’. To write in third person, you must use exactly that – the third person as the starting point of your story.
As we previously mentioned, you can use the third person writing for both academic and creative writing purposes.
- Academic Writing
When it comes to academic papers, the question often arises: where and how do you write a third person essay?
The answer is simple – use third person for all academic writing. It can make your content look more objective, less personal and increase credibility with the reader. Third person writing helps the reader remain focused on evidence, arguments and facts instead of their personal opinions.
With creative writing, you have more choice regarding the person you will use in the content. This does not mean that you cannot use first person in academic writing ever, but if you want to achieve a formal tone as requested, academic writing often requires third person.
Why is this?
The focus of the academic papers is on the writing, not the writer. Therefore, the voice in your papers is not yours since it should not be a piece that showcases personal opinion. Instead, academic writing is sustained by research and evidence and therefore, requires objectivity.
- Creative Writing
If you choose to use this strategy in creative writing, you can implement several perspective choices:
- Omniscient
Using the third person omniscient perspective allows you to switch the narrative from one person to another. As a narrator, you do not use the thoughts and actions of one character only, but know everything about as many people as you choose to write about.
The third person omniscient allows the writer to reveal any information they want, without any limits.
- Limited
As the name suggests, you are limited to a single character when you use the third person limited perspective. You only have access to the thoughts, feelings, and actions of a single person, but you still have the choice of stepping back and getting a more objective approach.
- Episodically limited
With episodically limited third person perspective, you can present many main characters and their thoughts and perspectives, as long as you pay attention to turning taking. The trick here is to focus on one character at a time and make all transitions in a smooth manner.
- Objective
The objective perspective takes many characters and places them at any time and turn into the story. As a writer, you can switch between characters, as long as you want.
However, the difference between omniscient and objective perspective is that in this case, the writer does not get directly into the head of the character. He takes the approach of an invisible bystander that observes all the actions of the characters.
How to Write in Third Person – Strategies and Importance
Writing a paper in third person is a must for every student who wants to succeed on an academic level. Since your paper is based on research and writing skills, it has to be objective.
To help you out, we have selected the best third person writing tips:
- Use correct pronouns
The correct pronouns in third person writing are those who refer to ‘people on the outside’.
Third person pronouns in English include:
- he, she, it
- his, her, its
- him, her, it
- Himself, herself, itself
- they, them, their and themselves
In addition to these, you can use the name of the person.
- Avoid first person writing
The whole point of using the third person to achieve objectivity lies in the fact that the first person shows personal perspective and is not considered objective. If you use first person pronouns, you are making the content too opinionated and personal.
- Avoid second person writing
Second person addresses the reader directly, which can show too much familiarity with them. Therefore, you must not speak directly to the reader in academic writing.
- Use general terms to refer to the subject
When you need to speak about someone or refer to a person, use an indefinite third person. You can use both a pronoun and a noun.
Indefinite nouns in the third person include:
The writer, individuals, students, the reader, an instructor, a man, a woman, people, a child, a person, experts, etc.
Such pronouns include:
Everybody, one, anyone, no one, someone, everyone, each, any, etc.
All these tips serve to help you craft an excellent piece of academic writing. Take the time to do your research and plan the paper, but also pay special attention to your writing perspective. Without it, all your effort may go in vain.