Writing in Third Person in APA Style

Writing in third person APA style means no first or second person, but using an active voice.

The American Psychological Association (APA) style of writing is one of the most popular for research papers, including the citations, footnotes and bibliography. Third person point of view is the most common voice used when writing in APA style, with exceptions being given to experts in the field of the study that are at a senior scholar level.

Instructions

1. Write a rough draft of your paper or essay, focusing only on getting the information you want on the page. Avoid use of the words "I" and "you" (addressing yourself or the reader directly), which will help you avoid the first and second person points of view.

2. Read each sentence individually and check for third person, which means there is no narration present. Your writing should simply observe the information and record findings. For example, rather than "I performed an in-depth analysis that revealed the real effect of plastic in landfills," the proper APA style would be "An in-depth analysis revealed the real effect of plastic in landfills."

3. Avoid using passive voice in APA style, a common mistake when trying to write in third person. Check to be sure the subject doing the action verb in each sentence can be found. For example, a passive voice sentence might read "Examinations have been performed on lab rats." A proper active sentence in APA style third person would read "Scientists have performed examinations on lab rats."

Tips & Warnings

• If you are writing the paper with another individual, first person point of view may be used to refer to both of you. For example: "We found that the study was accurate."

• Be as specific as possible with details when writing an APA style paper, and avoid using unnecessary words.

• APA style papers are usually in the field of social sciences, which has certain specifications for preferred word choices within scholarly works, according to the Purdue Online Writing Lab. For example, rather than use the word "subjects" when referring to people you studied, explain clearly who they are with phrases like "teenagers" or "middle-aged men."

References

• OWL: Purdue Online Writing Lab - APA Stylistics

Resources

• OWL: Purdue Online Writing Lab - Active and Passive Voice
• Writing in American Psychological Association Style: A Descriptive and Illustrative Sample