writing

First, any use of phrases like “I think”, “I believe”, or “I feel” are unnecessary because as the author all statements presented in your paper are understood to be yours unless other wise noted. For the most part these phrases can simply be removed, but sometimes slight alterations in wording may be necessary.

The other time writers find themselves using 1st person perspective is when relating a personal experience. When creating academic essays, personal experience is weak support in that one can find a contrary experience that represents an opposing viewpoint. Instead, we will work on presenting personal experiences in third person to create universal insights. To do this, it is often helpful to put the example in a more general, or ‘universal’ context. Think of potential nouns, and potentially pronouns, that capture a ‘group’ (People, students, teens, young adults) and have them be the subject of your example. Have a look at an example experience first presented in 1st person:

I had a friend who was bullied on Facebook after she posted her senior photos onto the site. There was a group of people who didn’t get along with our group of friends. All through the year, little events would happen that would cause friction and name calling and negative gossip would ensue. Somehow they found my friend’s senior photos that she had posted to share with family and friends, and relentlessly left derogatory comments meant to hurt her feelings. Some of the jerks even edited the photos to make her look horrible…

Now try to convert:

Many teen users of social networking sites will experience cyber-bullying. Sadly, OSNS’s can often allow schoolyard friction to follow students into the home. Message boards and profile pages can light up with hateful words and no authority to stop them. Cyber bullying can make the victim feel like there is no escape from the judgment and that their future will be dictated by what is being said. For a young adult, this can be over whelming and lead to depression and even suicide…