Page 118 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

in a shift in point of view. For example, in a third-person essay about
distracted driving, a writer might say Texting while driving has cost so

many lives that some states have outlawed it. In the five seconds it

takes to read a text, you could veer into oncoming traffic and kill

yourself or another driver. In the space of two sentences, the writer

has shifted from a third-person discussion—a comfortable distance for

most readers—to a second-person discussion of the reader’s possible
death in traffic—much too close for most readers. Besides causing

your reader discomfort, you are making a grammatical error (see

Chapter 18 for further discussion of shifts in point of view).

Third person is the person, thing, or idea spoken about, the singular

he, she, it, the plural they, or any noun or pronoun that those
pronouns can replace. Third person is appropriate for college writing

and is required for research papers, papers about literature, and

answers to essay tests. Writing in the third person is necessary in

most professions, and learning to do it well should be part of your

college experience.