Point of view, sometimes shortened to POV, is at its most basic level the writer’s choice of personal pronoun used in his or her work. The personal pronouns in question are I, you, or he and she. The type of POV used is usually dictated by the information being presented. Students learn over time when to use one type over another and hopefully master the form that best represents their needs. Writers face point of view with a more complicated and even troubled relationship.
Three Basic Types of POV
Although there are subgroups, these are the foremost types that students must learn and hopefully master to be successful communicators:
- First Person: sometimes called the I voice
- Second Person: the you voice
- Third Person: the continuous use of he/she/it
Initially everyone learns to use the first person I-voice. It is the most natural way for individuals to express information as it mimics speech. The other voices can emerge in conversation during storytelling. A friend may tell a story and ask for the listener to sympathize, bringing them into the tale by interjecting something like, “You would do the same, right? What if you did this?”
Third person is similar and frequently used in storytelling or writing fiction. A person talks about something involving a third person, a he, a she, or an it: “The dog walked across the road. He stopped and looked both ways before he did it.” There is no you used here, or an I. Only the pronoun he for the dog, though it could also have been used if the gender of the dog was unknown.
Which Point of View Should be Used and Where?
Traditionally first person I-voice is used in personal papers or essays. If a teacher asks for a personal reaction to a reading for instance the student is probably allowed to write this in the I-voice.
A common source of confusion even among higher education, perhaps even at college level, is the question of how to write a lab report. Lab reports for science classes present a challenge because students want to report their findings and procedures in the first person, yet the topic is dry and impersonal. Most students have learned by this time that the I-voice is not used for conveying such information.
It can be difficult for students to remove themselves from their reports. Science classes expect their students to have already figured this out and unlike English courses don’t take the time to explain the formatting they expect in such papers. For students that don’t like English and writing, this oversight can really harm them.
What is the correct form to use during a lab report? Actually the correct form is for a distanced third-person that would be more accurately dubbed as technical writing.
For creative writing the field is open. The point of view that an author selects for a work is sometimes the most difficult thing he or she faces. In creative writing third person splinters into two subtypes and writers must contend with being consistent with the point of view they selected, as well as managing exceptions to the basic rules of point of view.
Learn More About Point of View
For specific help with writing technically and managing the point of view there, check out Technical Writing, or delve deeper into creative writing with the Third Person Point of View. Need help choosing a point of view for a fictional story? Learn the pros and cons of POV in Writing Fiction: Point of View.
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