In Class Exercise: My Thoughts on First vs. Third Person Narration

While I am conveying the same ideas and thoughts in both descriptions, the difference in narration subsequently affects the respective writings’ structure and tone.

Primarily, in the paragraph where I use first person narration, I am able to bluntly state my feelings, and it is obvious to the reader and grammatically correct that I feel these things and that this is my routine. However, while utilizing third person narration, I had to change the structure of my writing to “Marissa feels..”, and speak about my routine from an outer perspective.

Further, my tones sound different in the two writings. In the first person narration, my routine sounds more concise and informal, while in the third person narration my routine sounds more wordy and formal. In first-person narration I feel more comfortable and open, than when writing in third-person narration. There is essentially a huge difference between each narration’s style.

I feel more natural when I am writing about myself than when I do about someone or myself in the third person. When talking about something that belongs to me or that I experience, such as a routine, I would prefer to use first person narration so I can use concise and detailed words. I think that in third person narration, my words got cluttered and a lot of the words had to be changed to my name, “her” or “she”.

Overall, questioning this aspect of writing while critiquing my own work helps me grow as a writer. These two narrations have different guidelines, and overall convey a different language and tone. The structure plays a huge role in first vs. third person, and this type of writing exercise will help me think about these principles throughout my future writing works.