First, Second, and Third Person

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First, Second, and Third Person
You probably know what it means to write in first person, but you may not as confident about using second- or third- person point of view. Today, we are going to focus on each of these three points of view.

In grammatical terms, first, second and third person refer to personal pronouns. Each person has a different perspective, a point of view, and the three points of view have singular and plural forms as well as three cases form.

First Person
I the subjective case, the singular form of first person is “I,” and the plural form is “we.” “I” and “we” are in the subjective case because either one can be used as subject of a sentence. You constantly use these two pronouns when you refer to yourself and when you refer to yourself and others. Here’s a sentence containing both:
I look forward to my monthly book club meeting. We are currently reading Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda.

The first person of view is used primary for autobiographical writing, such as a personal essay or a memoir. Academics and journalist usually avoid the first person in their writing because doing so is believed to make the writing sound more objective; however, using an occasional “I” or “we” can be appreciate in formal papers and articles if a publication’s style allow it. Joseph M. Williams, author of Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, agree: “…deleting an “I” or “we” does not make science objective; it makes reports of it only seem so. We know that behind those impersonal sentences are flesh-and-blood researchers doing, thinking and writing”.

I asked Sam to help me with my Happy New Year mailing, and we somehow got the project done early during the last week of December in spite of our packed schedules. I’m quite proud of us and ended up calling the projects ours instead of mine.

For the further clarification regarding the eight first-person pronouns just used, here’s a table: I/we, me/us, my/mine, our/ours

Second Person
You use the second point of view to address the reader, as I just did. The second person uses pronouns “you,” “your,” and “yours”. We use these three pronouns when addressing one, or more persons. Second person is often appreciate for e-mail message, presentations, and business and technical writing. Here are two examples with second-person point of view.
        Grandma,
        Before you go to London, remember to leave your keys under the doormat. I’ll miss you. Sincerely yours, Anna
        Class, you need to be in your seats when the principal arrives. Tom and Jerry, I’m speaking to you as well. By the way, are these comic books yours?

Third Person
The third person is the most common point of view used in fiction writing and is the traditional form in academic writing. Authors of novels and composers of papers use “he,” “she,” or “it” when referring to a person, place, thing, or idea. The following quotations include the third person singular subjective cases and are from the opening lines of three novels:
“Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested”. “He” is in the singular third-person masculine subject case.
“Once upon a time, there was woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person”. “She” is in the singular third-person feminine subjective case.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” “It” is in the singular third-person neuter subjective case.

In addition to have a singular and plural case, you may have already noticed that the third-person has genders and a neuter category.

This is going to be quite mouthful of pronouns, but I’m trying to include all twelve singular third-person pronouns in only three sentences.
He met her at a conference where she was the keynote speaker, and it was odd to him that her laptop had a fountain pen sticker on it, because that was his favorite of pen. He had his with him and wondered about hers. “A laptop has its place on a desk or on a lap,” he thought, “but in the pocket near the heart and in the hand a fountain pen has its.”
That was a little awkward at the end, but there you have it – I mean them, all the pronouns. And now, before the last chart with third-person plural with the three cases, here is a short example with its four pronouns (Don’t write sentence like this; they’re impossible to understand!):
They gave them their gloves because theirs had holes in them.

A Reminder Regarding usage: Agree in Person
When you write in first-person, don’t confuse your reader by switching to the second person or the third person. Similarly, when using second or third person, don’t shift a different point of view. For example, here’s a sample that switches person in a confusing way:

I enrolled in a fiction-writing workshop for the winter quarter, and you have to complete three stories, each from a different point of view.

The pronouns in this sentence don’t agree with each other; the writer switched from first person to second person. Here’s the correct usage:

I enrolled in a fiction-writing workshop for the winter quarter, and I have to complete three stories, each from a different point of view.

Summary
So remember, simply stated, first person is from the writer’s point of view and uses pronouns such as “I”: I saw U2 at the Rose Bowl. Second person is directed at the reader and uses pronouns such as “you”: You saw U2 at the Rose Bowl. Third person is told from outside narrators point of view and uses pronouns such as “he,” “she,” and “it”: She saw U2 at the Rose Bowl.