How to Write a Research Paper in the Third Person
The third person, a key components of academic writing, is a voice intended to convey an objective point of view. One can easily implement the third person by avoiding words and phrases from the first or second person perspective. A person writing a research paper is usually expected to use only the third person. He or she can follow some simple rules of thumb to adopt this writing style and conform to the standards for academic research papers.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Write your research paper naturally. If you think about the third person too much as an inexperienced writer, you may have difficulty going from sentence to sentence. Since you want to get the most information down possible in your first draft, just write down the paper as it comes to you. You can go back later and fix the third person.
-
2
Run a search for the word "I." Statements phrased from this perspective are in the first person and should be eliminated. Often, developing writers use "I think" or "I feel" in writing. Instead, find verified facts. For example, you could change the sentence "I feel Chicago is the best city in the United States" to "According to a New York Times reader poll, Chicago was rated the number one city in the United States in 2011."
-
-
3
Look for all instances of the word "we." You need to eliminate these as well. Instead of "we can all do better to curb pollution," a person could write, "The United States population must solve the pollution epidemic."
-
4
Eliminate all uses of "you." That's a red flag that you are using the second person (as this sentence does). Even though you will be speaking to a specific reader, you must not use this word in your research paper. Again, you can achieve this by changing sentences around. For example, "You can find support for my argument on cars in the Auto Trader magazine" could be changed to "Auto Trader supports the proposition that vehicles lose value as soon as they leave the lot." The latter sentence still talks to the reader; however, it remains in the third person as opposed to using the second person.
-
1
