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Point of View and Perspectives

This document discusses point of view and perspectives in writing. It explains that a writer's choice of perspective, whether first, second, third-person limited or omniscient, can significantly impact how an audience interprets a text and reflects on its themes. The document provides definitions and examples of different point of view perspectives, noting how a narrator's reliability or lack thereof also shapes the audience's understanding. Students are prompted to experiment with varying perspectives in their own short writing pieces.

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The Aqua Duck
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13 views

Point of View and Perspectives

This document discusses point of view and perspectives in writing. It explains that a writer's choice of perspective, whether first, second, third-person limited or omniscient, can significantly impact how an audience interprets a text and reflects on its themes. The document provides definitions and examples of different point of view perspectives, noting how a narrator's reliability or lack thereof also shapes the audience's understanding. Students are prompted to experiment with varying perspectives in their own short writing pieces.

Uploaded by

The Aqua Duck
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Point of view and perspectives

In this topic, you will consider


how point of view and
perspectives (the writer’s and the
characters’) influence an audience
to reflect on themes and issues.
A writer’s context affects his writing. An
audience’s context is important too.
You will learn about and experiment with
first, second and third-person perspectives.
You will also learn about omniscient and
limited third-person perspectives. When
can we trust a narrator? Changing
perspective can be dramatic!

Learning Intentions
 Understand that choices about perspective and point of view can have deep
effects on an audience
 Understand that the writer’s and the audience’s context and perspectives will
affect a response to a text.

Note that during the rest of this module, you will be required to
write several small pieces and, at the end of the module, choose
three to include in a collection of at least 600 words. The collection
will show your experimentation with point of view, dialogue and
monologue, voice and tone, and various writing structures such as
time shifts, multiple narratives and combinations of forms.
Let us begin with point of view and perspectives. We have already touched on these concepts.
‘Point of view’ is about who is actually telling the story.  Of course, in writing, the writer is telling
the story – but he may be using the voice of someone else, not himself.  All writers adopt a point
of view to best suit their piece.

 Who is telling the story?


 How much does he know?

Is he telling the truth (or is he an unreliable narrator)?

First person perspective/point of view indicates the writer is


speaking, or the narrator. 
This form is most commonly used when writing about personal experiences or expressing one’s
own opinion.  The first person pronouns include I, me, my, mine, we, our and ours.  When
reading stories written from the first person perspective, the audience needs to realise that what
the narrator is recounting might not be the objective truth and the audience may need to question
the trustworthiness of the recounting

Second person perspective/point of view indicates the person to


whom the writer is speaking. 
The second person pronouns include you and yours. This point of view is quite rare in fiction. It
is more often used in directions and advertising.

Third person perspective/point of view indicates the person (or


thing) about whom the writer is speaking, to refer to other people. 
The third person pronouns include she, he, her, him, hers, his, it, its, they, them and theirs.

Omniscient perspective/point of view indicates that the narrator


knows everything about all the characters (the narrator is all
knowing, or omniscient). 
A narrator whose knowledge is limited to one character, either major or minor, has a limited
omniscient perspective/point of view.

How could you experiment with point of view and perspective?


Here are some ideas.
 You could write a description of yourself, your physical appearance and your personality
from your point of view, in your voice OR write this description from the point of view of
someone else in your family – a parent, a younger sibling, a grandparent, in their voice,
using the words and expressions particular to them. Consider an event from childhood
recounted by the child OR by an adult who was there.
 You could tell the story of a car accident from the point of view of someone involved OR from
the point of view of a bystander OR using an omniscient third person perspective (the
narrator is not a character in the story at all). The third option is most interesting when it
parallels another option.
 You could tell a story by a first person narrator who is not to be trusted. It will be important to
reveal this unreliability to the reader, perhaps with a surprise at the end. The unreliable
narrator is actually the focus and most interesting feature of the story.

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