How to Tell If a College Essay is in First Person Or Third Person

How to Tell If a College Essay is in First Person Or Third PersonIf you have ever looked at a college application or sat down to write a college essay, you may have heard the term 'first person' many times. But, you may not know what the first person means and what it actually does. In this article we will explore the first person and how to tell if an essay is in first person or third person.An essay is the shortest part of the application process and most colleges only allow one or two minutes to write your essay. The purpose of an essay is to express yourself and to get your name out there. When writing an essay, you should keep the subject matter as simple as possible, so that your essay can be read quickly and easily.Your subject matter is the first thing you need to write about when you are creating your essay. If you choose to go with a topic that is complex, you will find that it takes more time to create and edit your essay. You need to think about the type of paper you want to send out to colleges and start with the simplest material that you can work with.One of the most difficult parts of writing a college essay is to be able to switch from being in first person to third person and back. If you feel like your essays are coming out too long, it is time to break your essay up into smaller segments and move around the subject matter a little bit. Just as you would use simple phrases to break your essay up into smaller paragraphs, the same technique can be used with first person pronouns.Here is how to tell if a college essay is in first person or third person. For each section of your essay it is easy to break the essay up into individual sections and you can use this technique for each paragraph.Start with the beginning of your writing section and tell your reader immediately who you are talking about. There is no need to think about the person in the third person and you should be just as direct with your reader as if you were writing about yourself. Continue with the next paragraph and simply insert the name of the character from the first paragraph. If you were to introduce your main character and give the readers the impression that the character is in third person the first paragraph could get confusing and you may feel as if you are going overboard. By switching pronouns every time you change the subject of your writing you will find that the flow of your essay is much more clear.These techniques are easy ways to tell if a college essay is in first person or third person. If you find that you are stuck and that you can't figure out which way to go, you may want to ask a counselor for assistance or have a friend or family member read over your essay and make suggestions for you.