How to Write an Essay in 3rd Person
Essays are generally short, concise pieces of writing used to develop an idea or bring clarity to a concept. Though research can be used to support an essay, for the most part the information is the product of individual thought or perspective. Essays serve a wide variety of purpose, and depending on the end goal different points of view should be used for writing. The third-person point-of-view creates distance between the author and the information presented; it's a useful way to create an objective argument and lend an air of formality to a piece.
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Instructions
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Determine if third-person is the best suited point-of-view for the type of essay you'll be writing. First-person is predominately used when writing essays that express a perspective or opinion of the writer; these are called narrative essays. Second-person is most often used in fiction writing or in technical writing. Third-person is used to write formal essays that look to inform the audience or articulate an objective argument.
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Plan your essay before writing. Brainstorm a list of ideas that support the essay topic and then supplement these ideas with research, if appropriate. Make an outline organizing these concepts into distinct sections: introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction is an overview of the basic premise of the essay and the supporting points, and it also includes the thesis statement. The body of the essay is used to extrapolate each supporting point; use a new paragraph to explain each new concept. The conclusion of the essay summarizes your points and leaves the reader with a closing thought.
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Write your essay using third-person pronouns (he, she, it, they, him, her, it, them, his, hers, their, theirs). If using references, cite them while writing as it can be tedious to go through this process afterword. Use the MLA Handbook to learn the proper guidelines for citation.
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Proofread your document for the use of first-person (I, we, me, us, my, mine, our, ours) and second-person (you, your, yours), and if any of these pronouns are present, replace with the appropriate third-person pronoun. Be sure to change the verb tense to agree with the new pronoun if necessary. Check the essay for grammar, spelling, syntax, format and citation errors. Reading your essay aloud is a good way to notice errors you may have missed initially.
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- Photo Credit writing hand image by Kovac from Fotolia.com
