third person argumentative essay

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How to Write in Third Person

Last Updated: March 27, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Alicia Cook . Alicia Cook is a Professional Writer based in Newark, New Jersey. With over 12 years of experience, Alicia specializes in poetry and uses her platform to advocate for families affected by addiction and to fight for breaking the stigma against addiction and mental illness. She holds a BA in English and Journalism from Georgian Court University and an MBA from Saint Peter’s University. Alicia is a bestselling poet with Andrews McMeel Publishing and her work has been featured in numerous media outlets including the NY Post, CNN, USA Today, the HuffPost, the LA Times, American Songwriter Magazine, and Bustle. She was named by Teen Vogue as one of the 10 social media poets to know and her poetry mixtape, “Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately” was a finalist in the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,137,061 times.

Writing in third person can be a simple task, with a little practice. For academic purposes, third person writing means that the writer must avoid using subjective pronouns like “I” or “you.” For creative writing purposes, there are differences between third person omniscient, limited, objective, and episodically limited points of view. Choose which one fits your writing project.

Writing in Third Person Academically

• Third person helps the writing stay focused on facts and evidence instead of personal opinion.

• Third person pronouns include: he, she, it; his, her, its; him, her, it; himself, herself, itself; they; them; their; themselves.
• Names of other people are also considered appropriate for third person use.
• Example: “ Smith believes differently. According to his research, earlier claims on the subject are incorrect.”

• First person pronouns include: I, me, my, mine, myself, we, us, our, ours, ourselves. [3] X Research source
• The problem with first person is that, academically speaking, it sounds too personalized and too subjective. In other words, it may be difficult to convince the reader that the views and ideas being expressed are unbiased and untainted by personal feelings. Many times, when using first person in academic writing, people use phrases like "I think," "I believe," or "in my opinion."
• Incorrect example: “Even though Smith thinks this way, I think his argument is incorrect.”
• Correct example: “Even though Smith thinks this way, others in the field disagree.”

• Second person pronouns include: you, your, yours, yourself. [4] X Research source
• One main problem with second person is that it can sound accusatory. It runs to risk of placing too much responsibility on the shoulders of the reader specifically and presently reading the work.
• Incorrect example: “If you still disagree nowadays, then you must be ignorant of the facts.”
• Correct example: “Someone who still disagrees nowadays must be ignorant of the facts.”

• Indefinite third person nouns common to academic writing include: the writer, the reader, individuals, students, a student, an instructor, people, a person, a woman, a man, a child, researchers, scientists, writers, experts.
• Example: “In spite of the challenges involved, researchers still persist in their claims.”
• Indefinite third person pronouns include: one, anyone, everyone, someone, no one, another, any, each, either, everybody, neither, nobody, other, anybody, somebody, everything, someone.
• Incorrect example: "You might be tempted to agree without all the facts."
• Correct example: “ One might be tempted to agree without all the facts.”
• This is usually done in an attempt to avoid the gender-specific “he” and “she” pronouns. The mistake here would be to use the “they” pronoun with singular conjugation. [5] X Research source
• Incorrect example: “The witness wanted to offer anonymous testimony. They was afraid of getting hurt if their name was spread.”
• Correct example: “The witness wanted to offer anonymous testimony. They were afraid of getting hurt if their name was spread.”

Writing in Third Person Omniscient

• For instance, a story may include four major characters: William, Bob, Erika, and Samantha. At various points throughout the story, the thoughts and actions of each character should be portrayed. These thoughts can occur within the same chapter or block of narration.
• Writers of omniscient narratives should be conscious of “head-hopping” — that is, shifting character perspectives within a scene. While this does not technically break the rules of Third Person Omniscience, it is widely considered a hallmark of narrative laziness.

• In a sense, the writer of a third person omniscient story is somewhat like the “god” of that story. The writer can observe the external actions of any character at any time, but unlike a limited human observer, the writer can also peek into the inner workings of that character at will, as well.
• Know when to hold back. Even though a writer can reveal any information they choose to reveal, it may be more beneficial to reveal some things gradually. For instance, if one character is supposed to have a mysterious aura, it would be wise to limit access to that character's inner feelings for a while before revealing his or her true motives.

• Do not use first person and second person points of view in the narrative or descriptive portions of the text.
• Correct example: Bob said to Erika, “I think this is creepy. What do you think?”
• Incorrect example: I thought this was creepy, and Bob and Erika thought so, too. What do you think?

Writing in Third Person Limited

• The thoughts and feelings of other characters remain an unknown for the writer throughout the duration of the text. There should be no switching back and forth between characters for this specific type of narrative viewpoint.
• Unlike first person, where the narrator and protagonist are the same, third person limited puts a critical sliver of distance between protagonist and narrator. The writer has the choice to describe one main character’s nasty habit — something they wouldn’t readily reveal if the narration were left entirely to them.

• In other words, do not use first person pronouns like “I,” “me,” “my,” “we,” or “our” outside of dialog. The main character's thoughts and feelings are transparent to the writer, but that character should not double as a narrator.
• Correct example: “Tiffany felt awful after the argument with her boyfriend.”
• Correct example: “Tiffany thought, “I feel awful after that argument with my boyfriend.”
• Incorrect example: “I felt awful after the argument with my boyfriend.”

• Note that the writer can offer insight or guesses regarding the thoughts of other characters, but those guesses must be presented through the perspective of the main character.
• Correct example: “Tiffany felt awful, but judging by the expression on Carl's face, she imagined that he felt just as bad if not worse.”
• Incorrect example: “Tiffany felt awful. What she didn't know was that Carl felt even worse.”

• Correct example: “Tiffany watched from the window as Carl walked up to her house and rang the doorbell.”
• Incorrect example: “As soon as Tiffany left the room, Carl let out a sigh of relief.”

Writing in Episodically Limited Third Person

• Limit the amount of pov characters you include. You don't want to have too many characters that confuse your reader or serve no purpose. Each pov character should have a specific purpose for having a unique point of view. Ask yourself what each pov character contributes to the story.
• For instance, in a romance story following two main characters, Kevin and Felicia, the writer may opt to explain the inner workings of both characters at different moments in the story.
• One character may receive more attention than any other, but all main characters being followed should receive attention at some point in the story.

• Multiple perspectives should not appear within the same narrative space. When one character's perspective ends, another character's can begin. The two perspectives should not be intermixed within the same space.
• Incorrect example: “Kevin felt completely enamored of Felicia from the moment he met her. Felicia, on the other hand, had difficulty trusting Kevin.”

• In a novel-length work, a good time to switch perspective is at the start of a new chapter or at a chapter break.
• The writer should also identify the character whose perspective is being followed at the start of the section, preferably in the first sentence. Otherwise, the reader may waste too much energy guessing.
• Correct example: “Felicia hated to admit it, but the roses Kevin left on her doorstep were a pleasant surprise.”
• Incorrect example: “The roses left on the doorstep seemed like a nice touch.”

• For instance, if Kevin had a talk with Felicia's best friend about Felicia's feelings for him, Felicia herself would have no way of knowing what was said unless she witnessed the conversation or heard about it from either Kevin or her friend.

Writing in Third Person Objective

• There does not need to be a single main character to focus on. The writer can switch between characters, following different characters throughout the course of the narrative, as often as needed.
• Stay away from first person terms like “I” and second person terms like “you” in the narrative, though. Only use first and second person within dialog.

• Imagine that you are an invisible bystander observing the actions and dialog of the characters in your story. You are not omniscient, so you do not have access to any character's inner thoughts and feelings. You only have access to each character's actions.
• Correct example: “After class, Graham hurriedly left the room and rushed back to his dorm room.”
• Incorrect example: “After class, Graham raced from the room and rushed back to his dorm room. The lecture had made him so angry that he felt as though he might snap at the next person he met.”

• Correct example: “When no one else was watching her, Isabelle began to cry.”
• Incorrect example: “Isabelle was too prideful to cry in front of other people, but she felt completely broken-hearted and began crying once she was alone.”

• Let the reader draw his or her own conclusions. Present the actions of the character without analyzing them or explaining how those actions should be viewed.
• Correct example: “Yolanda looked over her shoulder three times before sitting down.”
• Incorrect example: “It might seem like a strange action, but Yolanda looked over her shoulder three times before sitting down. This compulsive habit is an indication of her paranoid state of mind.”

Examples of Third Person POV

Expert Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://stlcc.edu/student-support/academic-success-and-tutoring/writing-center/writing-resources/point-of-view-in-academic-writing.aspx
• ↑ http://studysupportresources.port.ac.uk/Writing%20in%20the%20third%20peson.pdf
• ↑ http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/third_person.htm
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/use-the-singular-they/
• ↑ Alicia Cook. Professional Writer. Expert Interview. 11 December 2020.
• ↑ https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/point-of-view-first-second-third-person-difference
• ↑ https://ojs.library.dal.ca/YAHS/article/viewFile/7236/6278

About This Article

To write in third person, refer to people or characters by name or use third person pronouns like he, she, it; his, her, its; him, her, it; himself, herself, itself; they; them; their; and themselves. Avoid first and second person pronouns completely. For academic writing, focus on a general viewpoint rather than a specific person's to keep things in third person. In other types of writing, you can write in third person by shifting your focus from character to character or by focusing on a single character. To learn more from our Literary Studies Ph.D., like the differences between third person omniscient and third person limited writing, keep reading the article! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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• Citation Styles

How to write in third-person

Although there are three narratives you can use in any form of writing when it comes to your papers and anything academic you produce, it’s best to choose the third-person. It’s pretty simple with a bit of practice, but if you’re completely new to this writing style, here’s what you need to know about how to write in third-person.

What does writing in third-person mean?

Writing in third-person is one of the three styles you can use when describing a point of view. Even though you might not know it, chances are you’ve used first, second and third person in writing projects throughout your education.

It’s a narrative where you’re totally independent of the subject you’re analyzing and writing about. You don’t take sides. You don’t try to influence what readers feel. It’s a completely unbiased, objective way of writing that tells a story or dissects a topic right down the middle.

There’s a lot of information out there about how you can differentiate between the three in roundabout ways, making it unnecessarily complicated. Here’s a quick breakdown to understand the differences for when you write your following paper:

First-person

This is from the I/we perspective. It’s where we talk about us , ourselves, and our opinions. If we go down the first-person route, writing will include pronouns like I , me , myself, and mine .

Second-person

This point of view belongs to the person you’re addressing — so its a you perspective. In your writing, you’d use second-person pronouns such as you , your, and yourselves .

Third-person

The third-person point of view is aimed at the person or people being talked about, which is the type of writing you’d find in stories. In this perspective, you’d use pronouns like he , she , him , her , his , hers , himself , herself , it , them , their, and themselves . Or, you’d use a name. But that tends to happen more in stories than research papers.

Notice the difference between the three?

When to write in third-person

The third-person point of view tells the reader a story and it’s often the go-to when you’re taking an authoritative stance in your papers, which is why it’s so common in academic writing.

So, always choose the third-person stance when writing academic copy, such as essays and research papers.

The reason for this is it’ll make your papers less personal and more objective, meaning the objectivity will make you come across as more credible and less biased. Ultimately, this will help your grades as the third-person view keeps you focused on evidence and facts instead of your opinion.

You can break third-person perspectives into three other types, including omniscient, limited, and objective. Although they’re more associated with creative writing than academic work and essays, your writing is likely to fall under the third-person objective point of view.

A third-person objective point of view is about being neutral and presenting your findings and research in an observational way, rather than influencing the reader with your opinions.

How to use the third-person point of view

Rule number one: Never refer to yourself in your essay in the third-person. That’s a no-no.

For instance, here’s how you shouldn’t write a sentence in your essay if you’re writing about virtual learning as an example.

“I feel like students perform better at home because they have more freedom and are more comfortable.”

It’s a simple sentence, but there’s a lot wrong with it when you’re talking about research papers and adopting a third-person narrative. Why? Because you’re using first-person pronouns and, as it sounds like an opinion, you can’t back up your claims with a stat or any credible research. There’s no substance to it whatsoever.

Also, it isn’t very assertive. The person marking your work won’t be impressed by “I feel like,” because it shows no authority and highlights that it came from your brain and not anywhere of note.

By including terms like “I think” or “I feel” like in the example above, you’re already off to a bad start.

But when you switch that example to the third-person point of view, you can cite your sources , which is precisely what you need to do in your essays and research papers to achieve higher grades.

Let’s switch that sentence up and expand it using the third-person point of view:

“A psychological study from Karrie Goodwin shows that students thrive in virtual classrooms as it offers flexibility. They can make their own hours and take regular breaks. Another study from high school teacher, Ashlee Trip, highlighted that children enjoy freedom, the ability to work at their own pace and decide what their day will look like.”

With a third-person narrative, you can present evidence to the reader and back up the claims you make. So, it not only shows what you know, but it also shows you took the time to research and strengthen your paper with credible resources and facts — not just opinions.

6 tips for writing in third-person

1. understand your voice won’t always shine in your essays.

Every single piece of writing tends to have a voice or point of view as if you’re speaking to the reader directly. However, that can’t always happen in academic writing as it’s objective compared to a novel, for example. Don’t try to ‘fluff’ up your piece to try and cram your personality in, as your academic work doesn’t need it.

2. Don’t focus on yourself or the reader — focus on the text

An academic piece of work always has a formal tone as it’s objective. When you write your next paper, focus on the writing itself rather than the writer or the reader.

3. Coach yourself out of using first-person pronouns

This is easier said than done if all you’ve ever done is first- or second-person writing. When you write your next paper, scan through it to see if you’ve written anything in first-person and replace it with the third-person narrative.

Here are a few regular offenders that pop up in academic papers — along with how you can switch the statements to third-person:

• I argue should be this essay argues
• I found that should be it was found that
• We researched should be the group researched
• I will also analyze should be topic X will also be analyzed

The same applies to second-person, as there are plenty of cases where it tends to slip through in academic writing. Again, it’s pretty straightforward to switch the more you practice. For instance:

• Your paper will be marked higher if you use a citation tool should be the use of a citation tool will improve one’s grades

4. Be as specific as possible

This is where things can get a little bit confusing. Writing in third-person is all about including pronouns like he, she, it, and they. However, using them towards the beginning of sentences can be pretty vague and might even confuse the reader — this is the last thing you want from your essay or paper.

Instead, try using nouns towards the beginning of sentences. For example, use the actual subject, such as the interviewer or the writer, rather than he, she, or they when you begin the sentence.

The same applies to terms like it. Start the sentence with the ‘it’ is that you’re describing. If it’s a citation tool, begin the sentence by referencing what you’re discussing, so you aren’t vague. Clarity is key.

5. Write in the present tense when using third-person

In any form of academic writing, you need to write your reports, essays, and research papers in the present tense, especially when introducing different subjects or findings.

So, rather than saying “This paper analyzed” (which does seem correct as technically that part was in the past and the writing is in the present), you should write “This report analyzes” — as if you’re analyzing right here and now.

However, the difference is when you highlight how you did the research, that should be in the past tense. This means you’d use third-person phrases like “The equipment that was used” or “The results were analyzed by”, for instance.

6. Avoid adding your own thoughts

If your report is on a subject that’s close to your heart, it can be super tempting to sprinkle in your own thoughts. It’s a challenge, but you need to coach yourself out of it.

In academic writing, you aren’t a commentator. You’re a reporter. You need to let readers draw their conclusions without over-analyzing them or making the reader lean one way or another.

The easiest way to get to grips with writing your academic papers in the third-person is to be consistent and practice often. Criticize your work and analyze it until it becomes the norm. Yes, it can be a little complex in the early days, but before you know it, you’d have mastered the technique, helping you take your papers and reports up a level.

Frequently Asked Questions about writing in third-person

In third-person, you’d use pronouns like he , she , him , her , his , hers , himself , herself , it , them , their, and themselves . Or, you’d use a name.

You is used in second person and is therefore not used in third person. The second person is used for the person that is being addressed.

The third-person point of view is aimed at the person or people being talked about, which is the type of writing you’d find in stories. When writing in third-person view, make sure to write in the present tense and avoid adding your own thoughts.

When writing in third person, you should actually always write in the present tense since you are mostly presenting results in this view.

The second person point of view belongs to the person you’re addressing — so its a you perspective. In your writing, you’d use second-person pronouns such as you , your, and yourselves .

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Table of Contents

Ai, ethics & human agency, collaboration, information literacy, writing process, third-person point of view.

Many academic disciplines ask their writers to use third person point of view (POV). If so, then writing in the third person is important because your writing will appear professional and credible.

You may occasionally use first person POV to create a more personal tone, or second person POV to command a reader to do something. This depends on the assignment requirements, or on what your instructor recommends. If you are receiving this comment, then you should consider revising your use of other points-of-view to write your project in third person POV.

Third Person Personal Pronouns

Note: While the above pronouns represent the third person, instead of using it , that , these , those or this , specific words or phrases will better help readers follow the writer’s logic.

How do you change first or second person to third person?

Here is a table that shows several common instances of first or second person in essays and some examples of how to revise to the third person.

When is third-person point of view used?

Third person is used when a degree of objectivity is intended, and it is often used in academic documents, such as research and argument papers. This perspective directs the reader’s attention to the subject being presented and discussed. Third person personal pronouns include  he, she, it, they, him, her, them, his, her, hers, its, their,  and  theirs .

Examples of sentences written from the third person point of view:

• She went to the library to consult with the reference librarian about her paper’s topic.
• When he got to his car, he was glad to see that his friend was waiting for him .
• The students entered the classroom nervously on the first day of class; they had not had the opportunity to become acquainted with their professor or with each other.
• Jenny and her friend used backpacks to simplify the task of carrying books, notebooks, writing tools and a laptop around campus.
• Human sex trafficking is a social problem that requires decisive action; its victims should be given the opportunity to escape the cycle of exploitation to which they have become slaves.

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Everything You Need to Know to Write & Speak In Third Person

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The third person is frequently used in formal writing, such as research and argumentative papers. When you write in the third person, things become more impersonal and impartial. This impartiality makes the writer appear less prejudiced and, thus, more believable in academic and professional writing. The usage of the third person aids in keeping the text objective and away from subjective opinion.

Why should you write in Third-Person? 

In third-person narration, the narrator lives outside of the story’s events and describes the activities of the characters by using their names or the third-person pronouns “he,” “she,” or “them.” The story is not recounted from the author’s point of view. A third-person narrative differs from a first-person story, a personal account told using the pronoun “I.”

Flexibility : Third-person narration can be more flexible since you can flip between the stories of different people while still being everywhere and allowing your audience to see everything. You can switch between total omniscience and a distant or constrained third point of view. The latter method will enable you to experience a character’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences firsthand, which can help the audience have a more in-depth understanding of the narrative.

Trust : When writing in the third person, the narrator is placed above the action. This gives the reader a bird’s-eye view of the narrative. Since the narrator has no stake in the outcome, this perspective, together with the knowledge of at least one character’s thoughts gives the speech a more authoritative, trustworthy voice.

Types of Third Person Point of View

Third-person objective : The facts of a narrative are presented by an observer or recorder who seems dispassionate and impartial. The narrative is told in a detached and observant manner by the narrator.

Third-person omniscient : The narrator is fully aware of both the plot and the characters. This narrator may easily travel across time, enter anyone’s head, and provide the reader with both their own thoughts and views as well as those of the characters.

Third-person limited : The story is told from the viewpoint of a single character who recounts the facts and evaluates the occurrences. It is frequently known as a closed third.

Learning to Write in Third-Person

Using the correct pronouns .

Apply the appropriate pronouns. People “on the outside” are referred to in the third person. Either use third-person pronouns when referring to someone or use their name. He, his, himself, she, her, herself, they, and them are examples of third-person pronouns. The third person is also employed by using other people’s names.

Avoiding First and Second Person Perspectives 

First-person indicates the point of view when the author expresses ideas from a purely individual viewpoint. This viewpoint is excessively subjective and judgmental. In a formal essay, stay away from the first person. Pronouns in the first person are I, me, we, and us. 

The term “second person” describes a point of view that addresses the reader directly. Speaking directly to the reader as though the author personally knows them, this point of view displays an excessive level of reader familiarity. In academic writing, never use the second person. Words like you or yours are examples of this point of view.

Indefinite terminology is often used to refer to people in writing. In other words, they could have to refer to or talk generically about a person. The desire to use the second-person pronoun “you” generally arises at this point. It is permissible to use a noun or third person pronoun in this sentence. One, someone, another, any, neither, nobody, other, somebody, and everything are examples of indefinite third-person pronouns.

Incorrect example: “You need to read this thesis to understand the study better.”

Correct example: “Reading this thesis will help one understand the research better.”

Understand how to use Plural pronouns in Third Person

It is important to know when and where to use plural pronouns. When we write in the third person, the usage of they/them/theirs, is not just for when referring to a group, but also for singular individuals when we are unaware of their gender. People may use alternative pronouns. Employing “they” helps prevent misunderstanding that could arise from using “he,” “she,” or the “he/she” terminology. 

When writing in the third person, one error that writers frequently make is conjugating a plural pronoun as a single. Saying “They was the driver,” for instance, would be incorrect. The proper phrase would be “They were the driver.”

Being Objective

When you write in the third person, use the objective perspective if you are simply presenting facts to your listeners without any mention of feelings. When speaking from an objective point of view, the tone is frequently matter-of-fact and uninfluenced by any commentary or opinions or by any prior knowledge of events occurring elsewhere. You are just listing the facts and making inferences based on them without attempting to manipulate anyone’s emotions. Describe situations that could be moving while being factual.

Adding descriptions

We can use key details to improve characterisation and clarity. Mention it in more detail if the audience needs to know how difficult your labour was or how delicious the cuisine was. This is because while you speak or write in the third person, it is simple for the listener to become confused about what is being discussed. Therefore, it is helpful to reaffirm the situational circumstances.

For example: “The team received thunderous cheers.”

Updated Example: “The entire stadium thunderously cheered the squad.”

Use character evaluations

The perspective becomes clearer when you provide evaluations and insights from your character. Remember that adverbs have a strong role to play when you write in the third person. Words like surprisingly, definitely, oddly, and disastrously can convey the wants, concerns, presumptions, and confidence of the POV character. They also reveal who is performing the observations and evaluations.

For instance, we can say “the experimenter was presumably tired” rather than “The experimenter was tired.”

This demonstrates how we maintained the third person while avoiding adopting the experimenter’s viewpoint.

Using Third Person for Business

Writing in the third person offers the author more power while narrating a narrative since it enables them to be outside of the story and omnipresent. When creating a business proposal or report, the same rule applies. Now, the majority of corporate and professional writing rules advise the applicant to write in the third person . Compared to the first or second person, it is more formal.

Avoid switching between the third and the first person. It is quite simple to unintentionally use the first-person narrative while drafting a business report. Check your work frequently to make sure you are not drifting into your own first-person perspective to avoid that. Pronouns like my, our, us, and I should be avoided. This is fixed during revising the work.

The first-person voice is typically employed in professional communications like business emails, letters, memoranda, and most other types of correspondence. This is why using the third person in your company papers is a risky move . One significant benefit, especially when it’s a delicate subject, is that you don’t come out as accusing. Instead of sa ying “You did not reach the yearly target goal,” use “The staff did not meet the annual target goal.”

The third-person account, which may be found in newsletters, adopts an authoritative and impartial tone. When one writes in the third person, they come out as being more detached, especially when writing about poor attendance at the office. It doesn’t sound like they are blaming the reader.

Understanding the importance of the first and third person is essential in effective workplace communication. Here is an article to learn more about how to use effective communication.

Should you use the Third-Person for your CV or Resume?

Never write in the third person on your CV. The key to producing a superb CV is to avoid pronouns completely; since their use is assumed, applicants don’t need to mention “I,” “he,” or “she.” If you’re an executive assistant, for instance, you should simply state “Organized accommodation for staff” rather than “I coordinated accommodations for the staff.”

Use an action verb at the start of each bullet point in your list of duties to organise them into bullet points. Say “Generated reports” in place of, for instance, “I ran reports.”

First-person pronouns are frequently preferred by job applicants when writing their profiles. This is okay, but to preserve consistency and professionalism, the rest of the CV must utilise first-person pronouns as well.

We suggest using the absent first-person perspective and eliminating all first- and third-person pronouns from every section of your CV to make it stand out. It will help keep your resume professional (and not too personal) and could provide you with a little more room to discuss the talents that matter most.

Be mindful of whether you are using the present or past tense while writing your resume. To describe your current situation, use the present tense; to describe earlier ones, use the past tense.

Using the Third-Person in Academic Writing and Essays

You must use the third person pronoun when writing anything official, such as research articles or argumentative essays. That’s because it paints an objective rather than a subjective view of your work. By being objective in this way, your work will appear more credible and unprejudiced.

First-person pronouns are never appropriate in academic writing. This is because it will force you to look at your work subjectively . First-person pronouns make it challenging to persuade readers that your work is fact-based because it will appear to be your personal ideas. Avoid using your own words and instead cite sources. Words like “I feel” need to be dropped. Additionally, using “I feel” or “I believe” while writing an essay is useless because these words are not very assertive.

When you write in the third person, you concentrate on the facts at hand rather than your own ideas. You may provide your reader with proof by writing in the third person. Show whatever you know and provide support for your claims while writing in the third person. As opposed to stating “I think” or “I feel,” it won’t be as repetitive. If you have a piece by the Washington Post, for instance, you may remark “According to the Washington Post…”

As for the second-person point of view, this is a point of view that speaks directly to the readers. The issue with this point of view is that it gives the impression that you know the readers well. It is advisable to avoid this since it may quickly become direct or accusing .

Converting First and Second Person to Third Person

Using the first and the second person in writing is something that comes more naturally to us since these are the voices used in daily life. Follow these procedures to remove the first and second person and write in the third person:

1. As you read the article, keep an eye out for first- or second-person pronouns . Keep an eye out for any personal anecdotes that could demand the usage of first-person. Use a highlighter or a pen to highlight these words.

2. Go back to any words you marked. Drop expressions like “I think” or “I believe”.

Example: I believe counselling to be quite beneficial.

Updated Example: Counseling is really beneficial.

3 . Could any of the remaining words be changed to third-person terms ?

Example: You need to ensure that all of your students have stationery.

Updated Example: A teacher is responsible for ensuring that all of their students have stationery.

4. Can personal stories be altered into hypothetical ones if they are still present and cannot be amended or removed?

Example: As a person who goes to the gym, I know some people who could buy this product.

Updated example: Many gym-goers could be interested in purchasing this item.

By revising phrases or even altering words, it is simple to get rid of most instances of first- and second-person use. It is well worth the work to change and write in a third person paper since it produces a better, more objective argument.

Should you speak in third person?

Illeism is when we speak, think or write in the third person perspective about ourself. A common internal monologue that appears when we’re trying to decide what to do, thinking back on the past, or directing ourselves through ordinary situations is shared by many people. So is it weird to talk about yourself in the third person? Yes, in a way; it’s not typical for most individuals. However, it seems that using the third person while talking about oneself has helped certain people, according to psychologists.

Third-person speaking has previously been extensively researched and has been demonstrated to momentarily enhance decision-making. Currently, a PsyArxiv article reveals that it can also improve cognitive and emotional management over the long run. This, according to the researchers, is “the first indication of how wisdom-related cognitive and emotional processes may be taught in daily life.”

The fact that using detached self-talk to regulate emotions seems to require minimal effort is one of its most fascinating features. Along with reducing emotional overwhelm, third-person inner monologue also prevented cognitive control brain regions from going into overdrive( Moser et. al., 2017 ).

Consider the scenario when you and your partner are bickering. Taking on a third-person viewpoint may assist you in understanding their perspective or in accepting the limitations of your own comprehension of the issue at hand. Or assume that you are thinking about changing careers. You might be able to analyse the advantages and hazards of the shift with more objectivity if you adopt a detached approach.

First and Second Person

I had to leave my home for the first time ever and relocate to the campus of the university. I had to choose between living in an apartment and a dorm. Although both have advantages, I believe the dormitories are superior. While we are transitioning to college, we have more opportunities for social engagement in the dorms. Food is also readily available to us . Also, throughout your first year of college, a resident assistant serves as your mentor and adviser. Dorms are a better match for me because of the social possibilities, endless food, and mentorship, even if apartments would provide me with more independence.

Third Person

Many students have to leave their homes for the first time ever and relocate to the campus of the university. They have to choose between living in an apartment and a dorm. Although both have advantages, it is usually believed that the dormitories are superior. While the students are transitioning to college, they have more opportunities for social engagement in the dorms. Food is also readily available to them . Also, throughout their first year of college, a resident assistant serves as their mentor and adviser. Dorms are a better match for the students because of the social possibilities, endless food, and mentorship, even if apartments would provide them with more independence.

One of the three writing styles you may employ when presenting a point of view is third-person writing. Although you may not be aware of it, chances are you have utilised all three when writing or speaking throughout your life.

Consistency and frequent practice are the keys to mastering the art of writing speeches and papers in the third person. Analyze and critique your work until it becomes the standard. In the beginning, it could seem a little complicated, but before you know it, you’ll have mastered the method. This will undoubtedly enable you to elevate your papers and presentations to a new level.

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How to Write in Third Person Point of View

Sarah Oakley

Whether you’re going to write a short story, a novella, or a novel, one of the most important decisions you’ll need to make is which point of view (POV) to use.

Third person is the most popular POV for fiction writers to use. It gives the reader a chance to experience the narrative from a perspective above, or on the shoulder of, the characters.

In this article, we’ll learn what the third person POV is, how it compares to other points of view, and how to write in third person point of view.

What Is Third Person Point of View?

Third person pov meaning, how to write in third person, third person pov examples, conclusion on how to write in third person pov.

Third person POV is when the narrator exists outside of the story. This narrator relates the actions of the characters by using their name or third person pronouns such as “she,” “he,” and “they.”

There are three types of third person POV that you can choose from. Each POV provides a different reader experience as they reveal different amounts of information about the narrative, characters, and setting.

To decide on a POV, think about the type of story you are telling and whether your readers need to be aware of certain details at each point in the plot.

1. Third Person Objective Point of View

The third person objective POV is a way to tell your story by giving the reader all the details within the scenes without including what is going on in the characters’ minds.

To write in the third person objective POV, you will need to create an unbiased narrator who doesn’t tell the reader the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Instead, your narrator will simply relay the actions and dialogue of the story in an objective, impartial telling of the events.

This is great for keeping distance between the reader and the characters. It’s like looking through the window of a stranger’s house and trying to figure out why everything is happening.

2. Third Person Omniscient Point of View

When writing in the third person omniscient POV, you give your reader an all-access pass to the thoughts and feelings of any character in each scene of your story. You can give as much detail about the scene as you can in the third person objective POV, but this time you can also include information from the characters’ perspectives.

The narrator you create to speak in the third person omniscient POV will need to relay the thoughts and feelings of all the relevant characters in the scene. You can do this by switching perspectives. This is sometimes called “head hopping.”

You can use head hopping to show conflict in the story. For example, one paragraph is from the main character’s perspective, as they give some important information to another character. Then, the next paragraph is from the perspective of the person who received the information, which shows their reaction to what the main character just said.

Third person omniscient is perfect for sharing all the little details about the world you have created and allows the reader to pick up clues that some characters might not have noticed. Some writers refer to the third person omniscient POV as an all-seeing being who likes to give their thoughts on the plot.

3. Third Person Limited Point of View

This narrator sits on the shoulder of your main character and tells the story from their perspective. It’s close to being first person, but the reader isn’t solely within the character’s mind and this narrator still uses third person pronouns and verbs.

Sometimes, the third person limited POV narrator sticks to a different character each chapter instead of one character throughout the entire story. We refer to this as a viewpoint character, as we are seeing the world from their perspective.

You are controlling the amount of information given to the reader by focusing on one character’s awareness, rather than all characters’.

First Person vs Third Person

First person POV gives readers full access to the thoughts and feelings of the main character, as they are the one telling the story. There isn’t a narrator getting between the reader and the character.

Another key part of writing in the first person POV is that the character uses first person pronouns to tell the story. They use “I,” “me,” “my,” and “myself” as they are talking about actions and experiences.

Remember : not all main characters notice everything going on around them. It can break the reader’s immersion if they are wondering how the main character knew they were about to die, but there were no clues it was about to happen. Not all characters are psychic!

If you’re aiming to stick to one character’s thoughts and feelings, but you also want to add in some extra details that are in the character’s peripheral vision, try the third person limited perspective.

This POV can be used to great effect in thrillers where you want to stay close to the main character, so the reader connects with them.

Meanwhile, you can also give clues about things that are about to happen that the character is unaware of. Let us watch in horror as the character falls down a hole we all saw coming, but could do nothing to stop them.

Second Person vs Third Person

Second person POV puts you, the reader, in the driving seat as the main character. The narrator breaks the fourth wall and speaks to you directly.

This perspective uses second person pronouns such as “you,” “your,” and “yourself” to bring the reader into the narrative. The narrator uses third person pronouns to refer to other characters.

Second person works well in stories where you want full immersion for the reader. Some people love the feeling of being dropped onto the rollercoaster of drama in a good story. This is why second person is used in video games and Choose Your Own Adventure stories.

However, it is one of the least used POV types by fiction writers. One reason for this is that it takes a lot of skill to write about the reader in a way that feels natural to them while also giving away the right amount of information for the story. You don’t want your reader to lose interest because they don’t agree with something the narrator has said.

Third person objective would be a better option if you don’t want to write as though your story is about the person reading it. The third person POV allows the reader to focus more on the narrative and everything else that’s going on around the characters.

So far, we’ve discussed what the third person POV is, but what does the “third person” part of that mean?

Third person is a grammatical style of writing that uses pronouns such as “she,” “he,” “they,” and “it.” It also uses proper nouns and names when referring to specific individuals and objects.

1. Decide If Third Person Provides the Right Reader Experience

Do you want to tell the story from within the mind of your main character? Do you want to make the reader the main character of the story? If the answer is no to both questions, it’s time to look at your options for writing in the third person.

2. Pick the Type of Third Person Narrator

Go over the details of your story and your characters. You will need to establish whether third person limited, third person objective, or third person omniscient is the best POV for your story.

3. Read Examples of Writing in Third Person

It’s important to take the time to analyze what works and what doesn’t work in third person narration. The best way to do this is by reading other works that use third person points of view.

Focus on the information they are sharing. Did it work? Would you have used a different type of narrator for that story?

4. Use a Consistent POV

Switching POVs is a habit that a lot of writers do if they’re writing in a POV they’re not used to. Don’t worry, it happens. However, being aware that this is something to avoid before you get 200 pages into your novel and realize you switched POVs back on page 90 can help you be more observant of your writing habits.

5. Use the Correct Pronouns—ProWritingAid Can Help!

The third person POV means using third person pronouns when your narrator is speaking. Remembering this is one of the best ways to catch yourself from slipping into different points of view.

You can stop yourself from using the wrong pronouns by using ProWritingAid’s pronoun report. It’ll highlight all the examples of pronouns in your text, so you can easily work through your story and change them back into the third person if you’ve made any mistakes.

6. Create a Trustworthy Third Person Narrator

Your third person narrator is the voice of your narrative. How do they tell the story? Do we believe them?

Readers need to feel like your narrator has the authority to tell these events in a way that satisfies them. If you want to share the thoughts and feelings of the characters, the narrator needs to sound like they are confident in the details they are sharing.

Third Person Objective Example

If you’re wondering how to show conflict when writing in the third person objective POV, we would recommend reading Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway.

Let’s look at an excerpt from the story:

The woman brought two glasses of beer and two felt pads. She put the felt pads and the beer glasses on the table and looked at the man and the girl. The girl was looking off at the line of hills. They were white in the sun and the country was brown and dry. “They look like white elephants,” she said. “I’ve never seen one.” The man drank his beer. “No, you wouldn’t have.” “I might have,” the man said. “Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t prove anything.” The girl looked at the bead curtain. “They’ve painted something on it,” she said. “What does it say?” “Anis del Toro. It’s a drink.”

As you can see from this extract, the third person objective narrator is relaying the information about the scene without being biased to either of the characters. They do not quote the characters’ thoughts or feelings; they simply give details about their actions and words.

As a reader, you can still imagine what the characters are thinking and feeling, as the conflict is laid out bare for you to witness.

Third Person Omniscient Example

Readers of the third person omniscient POV expect the narrator to be all-seeing and all-knowing, so it makes sense that the narrator in Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett is “God” or the “Almighty.”

Here’s an extract from the novel:

“Er. Okay,” he said. “I’ll, er, be off then. Shall I? Get it over with. Not that I want to get it over with,” he added hurriedly, aware of the things that could happen if Hastur turned in an unfavourable report. “But you know me. Keen. So I’ll be popping along,” Cowley babbled. “See you guys... see you. Er. Great. Fine. Ciao.” As the Bentley skipped off into the darkness Ligur said, “Wossat mean?” “It’s Italian,” said Hastur. “I think it means food .” “Funny thing to say, then.” Ligur stared at the retreating tail-lights. “You trust him?” he said. “No,” said Hastur. “Right,” said Ligur. It’d be a funny old world, he reflected, if demons went round trusting one another.

This example shows how the third person omniscient narrator pops into the heads of several characters in one passage. At the beginning, we’re in Cowley’s mind, which is shown by the phrase “aware of things that could happen if Hastur turned in an unfavourable report.” However, within a few lines, we pop into Ligur’s mind, which is apparent in the sentence, “It’d be a funny old world, he reflected, if demons went round trusting one another.”

Third Person Limited Example

If you’re looking for examples of third person limited narrators that tell the story from one character’s perspective, we would recommend reading Happily Ever After by Harriet Evans.

Let’s check out a section of the novel:

She knew his face so well, knew him so well, how he drummed his fingers on any spare surface, how he looked vague when trying to get out of things, how his mouth curled to the side when he was making a joke. But she’d never sat this close to him before, because he was her boss. It didn’t feel like that tonight. It was as if they were different people. It was nice. Rory was nice, but then, she’d always known that.

Romance writers like writing first person POV, but third person limited also works well in this genre, like in this extract. The narrator is giving us a direct connection to the mind of the main character (Elle). They do this by describing everything Elle’s noticed about the man she’s attracted to.

Elle realizes her boss has always been nice and we get the impression she’s always secretly wanted to date him. The narrator shows us this by giving us Elle’s perspective on what’s happening in the scene. It’s as close as the narrator can be without Elle telling the story herself.

As you can see, writing in the third person isn’t hard when you follow the step-by-step process. It’s a lot of fun to experiment with the different types of third person POV. Which one do you prefer?

Don’t forget, if you’re worried about slipping into different POVs within your writing, you can always use the ProWritingAid pronoun report to keep you in check!

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##About Sarah is a romance writer with a passion for studying human connections and psychology. She lives with her fiancé and two cats in Gloucester, UK. When she’s not writing, Sarah enjoys visiting theme parks, singing along to rock songs, and planning her next vacation. ##Writing Experience Sarah is an aspiring screenwriter who hopes to see her name in the credits of a romance film one day. She has also written short stories and has had many ideas for novels in a variety of genres. ##Education Sarah has been studying the art of writing and film from the age of 16 and she holds a BA in Creative Writing.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 3 strong argumentative essay examples, analyzed.

General Education

Need to defend your opinion on an issue? Argumentative essays are one of the most popular types of essays you’ll write in school. They combine persuasive arguments with fact-based research, and, when done well, can be powerful tools for making someone agree with your point of view. If you’re struggling to write an argumentative essay or just want to learn more about them, seeing examples can be a big help.

After giving an overview of this type of essay, we provide three argumentative essay examples. After each essay, we explain in-depth how the essay was structured, what worked, and where the essay could be improved. We end with tips for making your own argumentative essay as strong as possible.

What Is an Argumentative Essay?

An argumentative essay is an essay that uses evidence and facts to support the claim it’s making. Its purpose is to persuade the reader to agree with the argument being made.

A good argumentative essay will use facts and evidence to support the argument, rather than just the author’s thoughts and opinions. For example, say you wanted to write an argumentative essay stating that Charleston, SC is a great destination for families. You couldn’t just say that it’s a great place because you took your family there and enjoyed it. For it to be an argumentative essay, you need to have facts and data to support your argument, such as the number of child-friendly attractions in Charleston, special deals you can get with kids, and surveys of people who visited Charleston as a family and enjoyed it. The first argument is based entirely on feelings, whereas the second is based on evidence that can be proven.

The standard five paragraph format is common, but not required, for argumentative essays. These essays typically follow one of two formats: the Toulmin model or the Rogerian model.

• The Toulmin model is the most common. It begins with an introduction, follows with a thesis/claim, and gives data and evidence to support that claim. This style of essay also includes rebuttals of counterarguments.
• The Rogerian model analyzes two sides of an argument and reaches a conclusion after weighing the strengths and weaknesses of each.

3 Good Argumentative Essay Examples + Analysis

Below are three examples of argumentative essays, written by yours truly in my school days, as well as analysis of what each did well and where it could be improved.

Argumentative Essay Example 1

Proponents of this idea state that it will save local cities and towns money because libraries are expensive to maintain. They also believe it will encourage more people to read because they won’t have to travel to a library to get a book; they can simply click on what they want to read and read it from wherever they are. They could also access more materials because libraries won’t have to buy physical copies of books; they can simply rent out as many digital copies as they need.

However, it would be a serious mistake to replace libraries with tablets. First, digital books and resources are associated with less learning and more problems than print resources. A study done on tablet vs book reading found that people read 20-30% slower on tablets, retain 20% less information, and understand 10% less of what they read compared to people who read the same information in print. Additionally, staring too long at a screen has been shown to cause numerous health problems, including blurred vision, dizziness, dry eyes, headaches, and eye strain, at much higher instances than reading print does. People who use tablets and mobile devices excessively also have a higher incidence of more serious health issues such as fibromyalgia, shoulder and back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and muscle strain. I know that whenever I read from my e-reader for too long, my eyes begin to feel tired and my neck hurts. We should not add to these problems by giving people, especially young people, more reasons to look at screens.

Second, it is incredibly narrow-minded to assume that the only service libraries offer is book lending. Libraries have a multitude of benefits, and many are only available if the library has a physical location. Some of these benefits include acting as a quiet study space, giving people a way to converse with their neighbors, holding classes on a variety of topics, providing jobs, answering patron questions, and keeping the community connected. One neighborhood found that, after a local library instituted community events such as play times for toddlers and parents, job fairs for teenagers, and meeting spaces for senior citizens, over a third of residents reported feeling more connected to their community. Similarly, a Pew survey conducted in 2015 found that nearly two-thirds of American adults feel that closing their local library would have a major impact on their community. People see libraries as a way to connect with others and get their questions answered, benefits tablets can’t offer nearly as well or as easily.

While replacing libraries with tablets may seem like a simple solution, it would encourage people to spend even more time looking at digital screens, despite the myriad issues surrounding them. It would also end access to many of the benefits of libraries that people have come to rely on. In many areas, libraries are such an important part of the community network that they could never be replaced by a simple object.

The author begins by giving an overview of the counter-argument, then the thesis appears as the first sentence in the third paragraph. The essay then spends the rest of the paper dismantling the counter argument and showing why readers should believe the other side.

What this essay does well:

• Although it’s a bit unusual to have the thesis appear fairly far into the essay, it works because, once the thesis is stated, the rest of the essay focuses on supporting it since the counter-argument has already been discussed earlier in the paper.
• This essay includes numerous facts and cites studies to support its case. By having specific data to rely on, the author’s argument is stronger and readers will be more inclined to agree with it.
• For every argument the other side makes, the author makes sure to refute it and follow up with why her opinion is the stronger one. In order to make a strong argument, it’s important to dismantle the other side, which this essay does this by making the author's view appear stronger.
• This is a shorter paper, and if it needed to be expanded to meet length requirements, it could include more examples and go more into depth with them, such as by explaining specific cases where people benefited from local libraries.
• Additionally, while the paper uses lots of data, the author also mentions their own experience with using tablets. This should be removed since argumentative essays focus on facts and data to support an argument, not the author’s own opinion or experiences. Replacing that with more data on health issues associated with screen time would strengthen the essay.
• Some of the points made aren't completely accurate , particularly the one about digital books being cheaper. It actually often costs a library more money to rent out numerous digital copies of a book compared to buying a single physical copy. Make sure in your own essay you thoroughly research each of the points and rebuttals you make, otherwise you'll look like you don't know the issue that well.

Argumentative Essay Example 2

There are multiple drugs available to treat malaria, and many of them work well and save lives, but malaria eradication programs that focus too much on them and not enough on prevention haven’t seen long-term success in Sub-Saharan Africa. A major program to combat malaria was WHO’s Global Malaria Eradication Programme. Started in 1955, it had a goal of eliminating malaria in Africa within the next ten years. Based upon previously successful programs in Brazil and the United States, the program focused mainly on vector control. This included widely distributing chloroquine and spraying large amounts of DDT. More than one billion dollars was spent trying to abolish malaria. However, the program suffered from many problems and in 1969, WHO was forced to admit that the program had not succeeded in eradicating malaria. The number of people in Sub-Saharan Africa who contracted malaria as well as the number of malaria deaths had actually increased over 10% during the time the program was active.

One of the major reasons for the failure of the project was that it set uniform strategies and policies. By failing to consider variations between governments, geography, and infrastructure, the program was not nearly as successful as it could have been. Sub-Saharan Africa has neither the money nor the infrastructure to support such an elaborate program, and it couldn’t be run the way it was meant to. Most African countries don't have the resources to send all their people to doctors and get shots, nor can they afford to clear wetlands or other malaria prone areas. The continent’s spending per person for eradicating malaria was just a quarter of what Brazil spent. Sub-Saharan Africa simply can’t rely on a plan that requires more money, infrastructure, and expertise than they have to spare.

Additionally, the widespread use of chloroquine has created drug resistant parasites which are now plaguing Sub-Saharan Africa. Because chloroquine was used widely but inconsistently, mosquitoes developed resistance, and chloroquine is now nearly completely ineffective in Sub-Saharan Africa, with over 95% of mosquitoes resistant to it. As a result, newer, more expensive drugs need to be used to prevent and treat malaria, which further drives up the cost of malaria treatment for a region that can ill afford it.

Instead of developing plans to treat malaria after the infection has incurred, programs should focus on preventing infection from occurring in the first place. Not only is this plan cheaper and more effective, reducing the number of people who contract malaria also reduces loss of work/school days which can further bring down the productivity of the region.

One of the cheapest and most effective ways of preventing malaria is to implement insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs).  These nets provide a protective barrier around the person or people using them. While untreated bed nets are still helpful, those treated with insecticides are much more useful because they stop mosquitoes from biting people through the nets, and they help reduce mosquito populations in a community, thus helping people who don’t even own bed nets.  Bed nets are also very effective because most mosquito bites occur while the person is sleeping, so bed nets would be able to drastically reduce the number of transmissions during the night. In fact, transmission of malaria can be reduced by as much as 90% in areas where the use of ITNs is widespread. Because money is so scarce in Sub-Saharan Africa, the low cost is a great benefit and a major reason why the program is so successful. Bed nets cost roughly 2 USD to make, last several years, and can protect two adults. Studies have shown that, for every 100-1000 more nets are being used, one less child dies of malaria. With an estimated 300 million people in Africa not being protected by mosquito nets, there’s the potential to save three million lives by spending just a few dollars per person.

Reducing the number of people who contract malaria would also reduce poverty levels in Africa significantly, thus improving other aspects of society like education levels and the economy. Vector control is more effective than treatment strategies because it means fewer people are getting sick. When fewer people get sick, the working population is stronger as a whole because people are not put out of work from malaria, nor are they caring for sick relatives. Malaria-afflicted families can typically only harvest 40% of the crops that healthy families can harvest. Additionally, a family with members who have malaria spends roughly a quarter of its income treatment, not including the loss of work they also must deal with due to the illness. It’s estimated that malaria costs Africa 12 billion USD in lost income every year. A strong working population creates a stronger economy, which Sub-Saharan Africa is in desperate need of.  

This essay begins with an introduction, which ends with the thesis (that malaria eradication plans in Sub-Saharan Africa should focus on prevention rather than treatment). The first part of the essay lays out why the counter argument (treatment rather than prevention) is not as effective, and the second part of the essay focuses on why prevention of malaria is the better path to take.

• The thesis appears early, is stated clearly, and is supported throughout the rest of the essay. This makes the argument clear for readers to understand and follow throughout the essay.
• There’s lots of solid research in this essay, including specific programs that were conducted and how successful they were, as well as specific data mentioned throughout. This evidence helps strengthen the author’s argument.
• The author makes a case for using expanding bed net use over waiting until malaria occurs and beginning treatment, but not much of a plan is given for how the bed nets would be distributed or how to ensure they’re being used properly. By going more into detail of what she believes should be done, the author would be making a stronger argument.
• The introduction of the essay does a good job of laying out the seriousness of the problem, but the conclusion is short and abrupt. Expanding it into its own paragraph would give the author a final way to convince readers of her side of the argument.

Argumentative Essay Example 3

There are many ways payments could work. They could be in the form of a free-market approach, where athletes are able to earn whatever the market is willing to pay them, it could be a set amount of money per athlete, or student athletes could earn income from endorsements, autographs, and control of their likeness, similar to the way top Olympians earn money.

Proponents of the idea believe that, because college athletes are the ones who are training, participating in games, and bringing in audiences, they should receive some sort of compensation for their work. If there were no college athletes, the NCAA wouldn’t exist, college coaches wouldn’t receive there (sometimes very high) salaries, and brands like Nike couldn’t profit from college sports. In fact, the NCAA brings in roughly $1 billion in revenue a year, but college athletes don’t receive any of that money in the form of a paycheck. Additionally, people who believe college athletes should be paid state that paying college athletes will actually encourage them to remain in college longer and not turn pro as quickly, either by giving them a way to begin earning money in college or requiring them to sign a contract stating they’ll stay at the university for a certain number of years while making an agreed-upon salary.  

Supporters of this idea point to Zion Williamson, the Duke basketball superstar, who, during his freshman year, sustained a serious knee injury. Many argued that, even if he enjoyed playing for Duke, it wasn’t worth risking another injury and ending his professional career before it even began for a program that wasn’t paying him. Williamson seems to have agreed with them and declared his eligibility for the NCAA draft later that year. If he was being paid, he may have stayed at Duke longer. In fact, roughly a third of student athletes surveyed stated that receiving a salary while in college would make them “strongly consider” remaining collegiate athletes longer before turning pro.

Paying athletes could also stop the recruitment scandals that have plagued the NCAA. In 2018, the NCAA stripped the University of Louisville's men's basketball team of its 2013 national championship title because it was discovered coaches were using sex workers to entice recruits to join the team. There have been dozens of other recruitment scandals where college athletes and recruits have been bribed with anything from having their grades changed, to getting free cars, to being straight out bribed. By paying college athletes and putting their salaries out in the open, the NCAA could end the illegal and underhanded ways some schools and coaches try to entice athletes to join.

People who argue against the idea of paying college athletes believe the practice could be disastrous for college sports. By paying athletes, they argue, they’d turn college sports into a bidding war, where only the richest schools could afford top athletes, and the majority of schools would be shut out from developing a talented team (though some argue this already happens because the best players often go to the most established college sports programs, who typically pay their coaches millions of dollars per year). It could also ruin the tight camaraderie of many college teams if players become jealous that certain teammates are making more money than they are.

They also argue that paying college athletes actually means only a small fraction would make significant money. Out of the 350 Division I athletic departments, fewer than a dozen earn any money. Nearly all the money the NCAA makes comes from men’s football and basketball, so paying college athletes would make a small group of men--who likely will be signed to pro teams and begin making millions immediately out of college--rich at the expense of other players.

Those against paying college athletes also believe that the athletes are receiving enough benefits already. The top athletes already receive scholarships that are worth tens of thousands per year, they receive free food/housing/textbooks, have access to top medical care if they are injured, receive top coaching, get travel perks and free gear, and can use their time in college as a way to capture the attention of professional recruiters. No other college students receive anywhere near as much from their schools.

People on this side also point out that, while the NCAA brings in a massive amount of money each year, it is still a non-profit organization. How? Because over 95% of those profits are redistributed to its members’ institutions in the form of scholarships, grants, conferences, support for Division II and Division III teams, and educational programs. Taking away a significant part of that revenue would hurt smaller programs that rely on that money to keep running.

While both sides have good points, it’s clear that the negatives of paying college athletes far outweigh the positives. College athletes spend a significant amount of time and energy playing for their school, but they are compensated for it by the scholarships and perks they receive. Adding a salary to that would result in a college athletic system where only a small handful of athletes (those likely to become millionaires in the professional leagues) are paid by a handful of schools who enter bidding wars to recruit them, while the majority of student athletics and college athletic programs suffer or even shut down for lack of money. Continuing to offer the current level of benefits to student athletes makes it possible for as many people to benefit from and enjoy college sports as possible.

This argumentative essay follows the Rogerian model. It discusses each side, first laying out multiple reasons people believe student athletes should be paid, then discussing reasons why the athletes shouldn’t be paid. It ends by stating that college athletes shouldn’t be paid by arguing that paying them would destroy college athletics programs and cause them to have many of the issues professional sports leagues have.

• Both sides of the argument are well developed, with multiple reasons why people agree with each side. It allows readers to get a full view of the argument and its nuances.
• Certain statements on both sides are directly rebuffed in order to show where the strengths and weaknesses of each side lie and give a more complete and sophisticated look at the argument.
• Using the Rogerian model can be tricky because oftentimes you don’t explicitly state your argument until the end of the paper. Here, the thesis doesn’t appear until the first sentence of the final paragraph. That doesn’t give readers a lot of time to be convinced that your argument is the right one, compared to a paper where the thesis is stated in the beginning and then supported throughout the paper. This paper could be strengthened if the final paragraph was expanded to more fully explain why the author supports the view, or if the paper had made it clearer that paying athletes was the weaker argument throughout.

3 Tips for Writing a Good Argumentative Essay

Now that you’ve seen examples of what good argumentative essay samples look like, follow these three tips when crafting your own essay.

#1: Make Your Thesis Crystal Clear

The thesis is the key to your argumentative essay; if it isn’t clear or readers can’t find it easily, your entire essay will be weak as a result. Always make sure that your thesis statement is easy to find. The typical spot for it is the final sentence of the introduction paragraph, but if it doesn’t fit in that spot for your essay, try to at least put it as the first or last sentence of a different paragraph so it stands out more.

Also make sure that your thesis makes clear what side of the argument you’re on. After you’ve written it, it’s a great idea to show your thesis to a couple different people--classmates are great for this. Just by reading your thesis they should be able to understand what point you’ll be trying to make with the rest of your essay.

#2: Show Why the Other Side Is Weak

When writing your essay, you may be tempted to ignore the other side of the argument and just focus on your side, but don’t do this. The best argumentative essays really tear apart the other side to show why readers shouldn’t believe it. Before you begin writing your essay, research what the other side believes, and what their strongest points are. Then, in your essay, be sure to mention each of these and use evidence to explain why they’re incorrect/weak arguments. That’ll make your essay much more effective than if you only focused on your side of the argument.

#3: Use Evidence to Support Your Side

Remember, an essay can’t be an argumentative essay if it doesn’t support its argument with evidence. For every point you make, make sure you have facts to back it up. Some examples are previous studies done on the topic, surveys of large groups of people, data points, etc. There should be lots of numbers in your argumentative essay that support your side of the argument. This will make your essay much stronger compared to only relying on your own opinions to support your argument.

Summary: Argumentative Essay Sample

Argumentative essays are persuasive essays that use facts and evidence to support their side of the argument. Most argumentative essays follow either the Toulmin model or the Rogerian model. By reading good argumentative essay examples, you can learn how to develop your essay and provide enough support to make readers agree with your opinion. When writing your essay, remember to always make your thesis clear, show where the other side is weak, and back up your opinion with data and evidence.

What's Next?

Do you need to write an argumentative essay as well? Check out our guide on the best argumentative essay topics for ideas!

You'll probably also need to write research papers for school. We've got you covered with 113 potential topics for research papers.

Your college admissions essay may end up being one of the most important essays you write. Follow our step-by-step guide on writing a personal statement to have an essay that'll impress colleges.

Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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How to Write an Argumentative Essay: 101 Guide [+ Examples]

An argumentative essay is a genre of academic writing that investigates different sides of a particular issue. Its central purpose is to inform the readers rather than expressively persuade them. Thus, it is crucial to differentiate between argumentative and persuasive essays.

While composing an argumentative essay, the students have to demonstrate their research and analytical skills. The secret of a successful paper lies behind strong arguments and counterarguments. So, the writer should focus on facts and data rather than personal values and beliefs.

Besides, a good argumentative essay should be structured appropriately:

• The introduction and conclusion have to create a frame for the entire essay.
• The body paragraphs are supposed to cover the essential points.
• Supporting evidence should make a paper more professional and reputable.

Are you still wondering what an argumentative essay is and how to write it? Check out the sections below prepared by our experts . Here, you can find the most valuable info, helpful tips, and useful examples.

📜 Classic Strategy

📋 toulmin strategy, 🗣️ rogerian strategy, ✒️ fill in the blanks, 🔍 edit and proofread, 🔗 references, 📌 argumentative essay in a nutshell.

Are you trying to figure out what an argumentative essay is? It’s a type of academic paper that covers both sides of a given issue. An author can decide whether they aim to present both sides equally or support one side more dynamically.

One of the mistakes among students is the confusion of argumentative and persuasive essays . Do you want to figure out the differences? Take a look at the following table.

Before writing an argument essay, it would be helpful to choose an appropriate model to rely on. There are three strategies to consider: Classical, Toulmin, and Rogerian.

Look at the following sections and choose the most suitable one for you.

Are you wondering how to write an argumentative essay? Consider using the classical approach. It is the most popular way of composing an argumentative paper.

Under the classical strategy, the author has to follow these rules:

• research the issue;
• present both sides;
• express own opinion;
• prove the reader the validity of the conclusion.

It is up to the audience to decide whether your position is right or wrong. Yet, you should try to convince the readers of the effectiveness of your opinion.

Usually, the classical argument paper is structured in the following way:

• Introduction . Use the hook to catch the readers’ attention. State the problem and explain why your topic is relatable to the audience.
• General background. Introduce the general info and several facts about your issue.
• Thesis statement . State your position clearly and concisely.
• The central argument. Provide valid evidence and appropriate examples to support your position. Refer only to reliable sources.
• Rebuttal . Include a counter paragraph in your essay, presenting the opposing arguments. Provide specific examples to make the reader understand your position. Also, explain to the audience why the counterclaims are incorrect.
• Conclusion . Synthesize your arguments and counterarguments. Give the readers a question for further investigation of your problem. To make your essay more impressive, compose a memorable concluding sentence.

Toulmin strategy is the most suitable for the discussion of controversial issues. This model aims to find common ground through clear logic and valid evidence. Besides, the Toulmin strategy eliminates unnecessary things and limits the points to agree upon.

An argumentative essay written by the Toulmin model includes the following elements:

• Claim . A viewpoint that the author aims to prove.
• Evidence . Supportive facts from reliable resources that highlight the significance of the claim.
• Warrant . An element that connects the claim and that evidence.
• Backing . Additional reasoning that underlines the warrant’s validity.
• Rebuttal . Counterarguments that contradict the author’s position.
• Qualifier . An additional element (usually, a word or a short phrase) that narrows the claim’s capacity. Several examples of qualifiers: “typically,” “usually,” “occasionally,” etc.
• Exceptions . Specific limitations that indicate the cases where that claim may not be valid.

Like the Toulmin approach, Rogerian strategy attempts to find common ground between two sides of one issue. However, the technique is slightly different.

The Rogerian model is often used in highly controversial debates when the parties do not accept each other’s position. Thus, the given strategy focuses on finding the agreement by proving the validity of the opposing arguments.

Below, you can find the primary outline for the Rogerian argumentative essay:

• Introduce the problem. Present the issue clearly and explain why it is worth the readers’ attention.
• Summarize and analyze the counterarguments. Take into consideration all the possible counterpoints and look at them from different perspectives. Discuss the cases in which the opposing claims could be valid. Demonstrate your open-mindedness. This will make the opposite party more loyal to you.
• Present your position. After discussing the counterpoints, state your opinion. Convince the audience about the validity of your points.
• Prove the advantages of your position. Explain to the opposite party how the acceptance and adoption of your points will benefit them.

🧐 How to Write an Argumentative Essay

Before working on your essay, carefully read the assignment. Make sure you understand all the instructor’s requirements and the purpose of the paper.

• Pay enough attention to the task. Did your professor assign you a topic? Or do you need to choose it yourself ? Make sure you have an idea that will turn into an outstanding essay.
• Select the strategy you are going to apply. An argumentative essay format will depend on the model you choose to compose your paper. Analyze the issue you will arise and decide what strategy is the most suitable. Is it the Classical model, the Toulmin, or the Rogerian one?

After that, start composing your argumentative essay. Check out the following sections. We have a lot of insightful info to share with you!

📚 Research the Topic

The first step of writing an argumentative paper is an in-depth investigation of the topic. To validate your arguments, you have to refer to credible resources. The essay will look more professional if you use reliable sources in it.

To research like a professional , do the following:

• Use only credible sources. You can refer to the books, research articles, materials from academic databases, or Google Scholar. Webpages registered as governmental or educational institutions (.gov, .edu.) and widely-known news websites (New York Times, BBC, CNBC) are also considered appropriate. Avoid using blog posts, outdated materials, and any other data from unreliable sources. You may get into huge trouble, taking information from random websites, since it may be invalid.
• Pay attention to the publishing date . You may be required to use the sources released no later than five years ago. Yet, it is not always the case, especially when you’re dealing with historical documents. Thus, double-check your instructions regarding recommended sources.
• Keep your topic in mind. Concentrate on what you are writing about and select the sources for your exact issue. Avoid sources that provide too general information and look for more limited ones. If your idea is World War II’s economic consequences, the history book from ancient times to modern days will not be the best option.
• Become an expert. Take enough time to investigate the issue you are writing about. Read numerous articles, compare and contrast the scientists’ opinions. Prove your reader that you are a reliable person who selected the best sources.

📝 Outline Your Essay

The majority of students tend to underestimate the power of outlining. Don’t do this! An argumentative essay outline is a helpful tool for planning, structuring, and composing.

Firstly , a well-developed outline helps the writer to put all their thoughts in an appropriate order. None of the essential points will be lost if the student plans the essay before writing.

Secondly , it lets the writer figure out what evidence suits what argument most. Before writing, draft your essay first. Put examples, facts, etc. in the right parts of the paper. Then, write the entire text.

Thirdly , an outline provides a perfect opportunity to change the essay’s parts without rewriting the paper. Are you unsure of specific details? Not a problem. Change them in the outline without ruining the text.

There are essential elements that your outline should contain. Check out the following section to see them.

Introduction

How to start an argumentative essay? First and foremost, include an argumentative essay introduction in your outline.

This part should grab the readers’ attention from the first words. Thus, put enough effort into composing a compelling hook . What can it be? An impressive statistic or an exciting fact? Be creative – decide yourself! But make sure that your intro is catchy enough.

After the hook, introduce your topic’s general background . Prove the readers the significance of your issue and gradually come to the thesis statement .

The concept of studying abroad is becoming increasingly popular in both developed and developing countries. Students around the globe strive to explore the world and broaden their minds, and studying in a foreign country is an excellent opportunity to do so. Such experience may be extremely beneficial because meeting new people and discovering foreign cultures help students to gain valuable knowledge and see the world from a new perspective. However, while presenting significant opportunities for personal growth, it may also bring about some challenges.

Thesis Statement

A thesis is an essential part of your argumentative essay. It should state your position regarding the issue clearly and concisely. Avoid general statements, vague words, and be as specific and possible. Your thesis statement should guide the readers throughout the main points of the paper.

The location of the thesis in the essay plays a crucial role. The most appropriate place for it is the last sentence of the introductory paragraph.

Although students face difficulties such as loneliness while studying abroad, it is a worthy experience to introduce them to new knowledge, people, and culture and promote their independence.

Body Paragraphs

The body of your paper is supposed to develop your position, provide valid evidence and examples. Each paragraph has to focus only on one idea. This will ensure the logical structure of your argumentative essay.

A body paragraph should start from the topic sentence and end with the concluding sentence . Such a frame around every section will make your readers stay concentrated on your ideas and get your opinion.

• The topic sentence is the first sentence of the passage. It should reflect its point and correspond to the thesis statement.
• The concluding sentence aims to wrap up the author’s thoughts. Thus, make sure that the last sentence of a paragraph is insightful enough.

Each body paragraph should include an argument (or a counterargument) with supporting evidence. Get your proof from credible sources and ensure that it directly corresponds to the point.

An example of a topic sentence :

The benefits of education abroad are almost innumerable, prominent examples being gaining new knowledge, making friends with people who have different mindsets, and discovering new cultures.

An example of a concluding sentence:

Participants of student exchange programs usually return more driven and eager to develop both themselves and their country.

A conclusion plays a critical role in understanding the entire paper. It summarizes the body and leaves the final impression. Besides, it may push the readers on further investigation of the issue.

• To make your argumentative essay conclusion powerful, it is not enough just to summarize the arguments. It has to synthesize your ideas and show the connection between them. In other words, your points should be summarized and analyzed.
• Moreover, a conclusion refers to the thesis statement . A mere restatement of the central idea is not the most successful way of finishing your paper. You should try to develop it to demonstrate the reason you’ve written the previous paragraphs.

One more tip:

• Give the audience an incentive to explore the topic more in-depth. Insert the questions for further investigation at the end of your essay. It would play a significant role in making an impressive conclusion.

To sum up, studying abroad is beneficial as it helps a person evolve and perceive a world from new perspectives. It is an opportunity for a participant to explore the world, meet new people, gain valuable knowledge and experience, and broaden their horizons. Education abroad might pose problems like homesickness, loneliness, and trouble with getting accustomed to a new environment. However, all of them can be easily overcome if a student is flexible and eager to become autonomous and independent.

The list of references is a crucial part of any argumentative essay. It should contain all the sources the writer uses in the paper.

Before organizing your reference list , double-check your argumentative essay format. Is it written in MLA, APA, or maybe in Chicago style? How many references does the professor expect you to include? What kind of sources are you required to use?

After figuring out these issues, move to the format requirements of the writing style you use for your paper. The most popular ones are APA (7th edition), MLA, and ChicagoAD (author-date) styles. Below, you can find the examples of a reference for the same book in different formatting styles.

Did you develop a good outline? Congratulations! You are almost done with the essay. Now, you need to fill in the blanks and create a final version of your paper. Here is where you need to demonstrate a high level of your writing skills.

• Make sure your paper has no logical fallacies. Information from an untrustworthy source, a hasty generalization, or a false conclusion may put your reliability as an author under threat. So double-check all the data you include in your essay. Moreover, make sure all your statements are well-developed and supported by valid evidence.
• Check your argumentative essay structure . All the arguments should refer to the thesis statement and must be presented in the logical sequence. The supporting evidence and examples have to be inserted in the text logically, according to the arguments.
• Pay enough attention to the citations. References and in-text citations are incredibly tricky. Always check every detail according to your essay format. If you are unsure of specific issues, refer to a citation guide and make your paper free of formatting mistakes.
• Ensure the coherence of your argumentative essay. Often, the paper’s material seems raw only because it is presented without a logical connection. To ensure a smooth connection between the ideas, use transitions between the paragraphs and linking words inside them. Insert them in the text to connect the points. As a result, you will have a coherent essay with the logical flow of the arguments.

The final step of your writing process is editing and proofreading. Although it is not that energy and time consuming, it still plays a critical role in the work’s success.

While writing your argumentative paper, plan your time accordingly. This will provide you with an opportunity to polish your essay before submitting it. And take a look at our checklist and always use it to improve your papers:

• NO first and second person. Use only the third person in your argumentative essay. It is a general requirement for any kind of academic paper.
• NO slang. The word choice is an essential part of the essay writing process. Ensure you use only formal vocabulary and avoid using informal language (jargon, slang, etc.).
• NO unchecked words. Sometimes, words can raise questions and lead to misunderstandings. If you are unsure whether the term is used appropriately, double-check its meaning or replace it with another.
• NO plagiarism. While proofreading, make sure your citations are either properly paraphrased or taken in quotation marks. You can change the sentence structure to avoid plagiarism.
• NO minor mistakes. Grammar, spelling, punctuation play a crucial role. Want to make your paper look professional? Make sure it is free of minor mistakes then.

Argumentative Essay Topics

• Should student-athletes benefit from sports?  
• Do celebrities really have influence on people behavior?  
• Will decriminalization of drugs increase drug menace?  
• Does social and environmental reporting promote organizations’ financial success? 
• Should online learning be promoted?  
• Can space exploration resolve human problems?  
• Is success really the outcome of hard work? 
• Is there discrimination against women in sports?   
• Will banning tobacco sales promote public health?  
• Is euthanasia a clemency?  
• Should college education be free and accessible for every student?  
• Should football be banned for being too dangerous?  
• Is it time to change social norms?  
• Should public servants’ strikes be prohibited?  
• Does media create a negative image of ageing and older people?  
• Is capitalism the best economic system?  
• Can children under 18 make an appropriate decision on getting tattoo ?  
• Should net neutrality be protected?  
• Can an improper use of social media provoke a family crisis?  
• Is it right to use animals in biomedical research ?  
• Does the climate change affect our indoor environment? 
• Are children’s crimes a result of poor parenting?  
• Should health care be universal? 
• Does the increased use of technology hurt students’ efficiency? 
• Is transformative education a key to the system modernization?  
• Why should patients have access to truthful information?  
• How does language barrier affect health care access?  
• Would allowing adoption by same-sex couples benefit the country’s child welfare system? 
• Is spanking children a proper way to improve their behavior?  
• Does gun control law lowers crime rates?  
• Will ban on spamming improve users’ internet experience?  
• Should behavior be made illegal because it’s immoral?  
• Is globalization really a progress?  
• Does aid to developing countries bring more harm than good?  
• Can parents improve children mental health by restricting internet use ?  
• Is trusting our senses the best way to get the truth?  
• Why parents should not have the right to choose their children based on genetics.  
• Is college education really worth it? 
• Will wearing a body camera by police officer enhance public trust?    
• Immigration : a benefit or a threat?  
• Is it a duty of adult children to take care of their elderly parents?  
• Should abortions be legal? 
• Are agents an integral part of professional sports?  
• Will ban of cellphones while driving decrease the car accident rates? 
• Should marijuana be legal for medical use?  
• Is veganism diet universally beneficial?  
• Should museums return artefacts?  
• Is water birth beneficial for women’s health?  
• Will paying people to stay healthy benefit the nation in the long-term perspective?  
• Is obesity a disease or a choice?  

It is up to you to decide how many parts to include in your essay. However, the 5 paragraph structure is the most appropriate model for an argumentative paper. So, write an introduction, a conclusion, and three body paragraphs.

The pronoun “you” is acceptable for informal writing. Yet, in academic papers, avoid using the second person. The same situation is with the first person. Generally, academic papers require the use of the third person.

A hook aims to grab the readers’ attention. Thus, you could start your essay with an interesting fact about your issue. Another way to create a catchy hook is to prove the audience the relatability of your topic. Make the readers want to explore your essay by demonstrating the significance of your issue.

Yes, you can. A question might become a compelling hook. Just make sure that it is profound, thought-provocative, and concise. A too broad or complicated question will only confuse your readers.

A title is an essential part of the essay since it causes the first impression. While selecting a heading, take into consideration the following points:

1. The title must be catchy.

2. It has to be not too long (5-12 words).

3. The title has to reflect the topic of the paper.

4. It should not be too complicated: the simpler – the better.

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• Sample Argument Essays: Mesa Community College
• Argument: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Tips on How to Write an Argumentative Essay: Grace Fleming, ThoughtCo
• Tips for Organizing an Argumentative Essay: Judith L., Beumer Writing Center, Valparaiso University
• Argumentative Essay: Oya Ozagac, Bogazici University, Online Writing Lab
• Argumentative Essays: Purdue Online Writing Lab, College of Liberal Arts, Purdue University
• How to Write an Argumentative Essay Step by Step: Virginia Kearney, Owlcation
• Counterargument: Gordon Harvey for the Writing Center at Harvard University
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Fundamental Rules Of Writing A 3rd Person Argumentative Essay

Are you in the process of creating a 3rd person argumentative essay, but are not sure what the fundamental rules of writing one are? By ensuring that you learn the correct way of approaching such a subject you’ll be able to increase the quality of your grade greatly. Just take the time to find out what these rules are, and you’ll see that they aren’t difficult to implement at all. With that thought in mind, here are the top things that you should consider when approaching the task of writing a 3rd person argumentative essay.

What Is An Argumentative Piece

In order to get the task done right you have to understand what an argumentative piece is, and here are the top points to understand:

• - As the name suggests you have to make an argument and defend it to the very end. The point is to take a stance on a topic and present good quality data and statistics to back up your claims.
• - Select a concise topic so that you have clearly defined what you will be arguing about. It will be difficult to create a solid argument if the topic is rather broad.
• - There should be three sections which are introduction, body and conclusion. The transition between the 3 different sections should be clear and smooth so that the project can achieve the top grade.
• - Each body paragraph should create some evidence to the point you are trying to make. The quality of the argument must be good, but that does not mean you can skip the research phase.

Learn How To Argue

If you don’t know how to create a good quality argument, then you should take a look at example argumentative projects. You will see how it is done so you know what must be included in your own project. You’ll see that such projects have distinct differences from the rest.

Furthermore, make sure that you always write in 3rd person and always keep to the same tone. You cannot switch to first person at any point of the writing phase of the project. You can also have a look at how this is done by checking out example projects online.

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• A Research Guide
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An Instruction to How to Write in Third Person

How to write in third person without mistakes.

When to write in third-person?

• Academic Writing
• Creative Writing
•    Third person omniscient
•    Third person objective
•    Third person limited
•    All your academic writing should be in the third person

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•    Ensure that you adopt the right pronouns
•    Don’t use first person pronouns
•    Do away with second person pronouns
•    Use general terms to refer to your subject
•    Take care of singular and plural pronouns
•    Creative Writing
•    Ensure that you don’t stick to only a single character
•    Take charge of your narration
•    Do away with first and second person pronoun

How to perfect your third person writing?

•    Focus on a single character
•    Talk about the other characters from the sideline
•    Deal with the words and actions of other characters
•    Keep information that is not familiar to your main character

How to use third person point of view

•    Switch to different characters
•    Avoid being direct
•    Use descriptions
•    Forget about your thoughts

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First person vs third person: when to use which?

A question I often get about writing is whether it is ever ‘okay to write in first person’. 

My answer to this is almost always – ‘it depends’:

It depends on the type of writing we’re talking about; whether you’re writing a personal essay, an argumentative essay, an expository essay, a literary commentary, a speech, a letter, a corporate communications document, or fiction (for this, using first or third person is entirely a personal decision). 

It depends on the tone that you wish to convey; it depends on the audience that you intend to address; it depends, also, on the frequency with which you use it in a given piece of writing. 

But first, let’s get our definitions in order – 

First-person narrative: The use of the pronoun ‘I’ (singular) or ‘we’ (collective) to communicate or narrate from a subjective point of view.  Second-person narrative:  The use of the pronoun ‘you’ (singular or collective) to communicate or narrate in a way that directly addresses the reader  Third-person narrative: The use of pronouns ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’ (singular), ‘they’ (collective) to communicate or narrate from an external point of view 

One interesting point to note is that first person is not always necessary for writing to come across as authentic or individual. An essay narrated in third person primarily focused on describing external elements such as the environment and material objects could very well convey deep, personal emotions; it is your craft, not the pronoun, that determines the depth of expression. An excellent example is Virginia Woolf’s description of London in Mrs Dalloway : 

“In people’s eyes, in the swing, tramp, and trudge; in the bellow and the uproar; the carriages, motorcars, omnibuses, vans, sandwich men shuffling and swinging; brass bands; barrel organs; in the triumph and jingle and the strange high singing of some aeroplane overhead was what she loved; life; London; this moment of June.” 

As a general rule of thumb, using first person as the predominant voice of your writing is going to make you sound less formal than if you were to use third person, which tends to come across more objective in tone. 

Between “I think studying English is a waste of time” and “Studying English is a waste of time”, which one sounds more authoritative to you? 

The former tells us that one person thinks studying English is a waste of time, but the latter makes the statement as if it were a general, accepted truth. Note that I say “as if”, because the statement itself is not, in fact, a general truth, but is only conveyed to sound that way through my deliberate omission of the first-person pronoun ‘I’.

So for types of writing that require a high degree of subjective opinion (e.g. anecdotal accounts, op-eds, public speeches, or indeed, blog posts), using first person would make sense.

On the other hand, for essays that are more concerned with relaying facts (or projecting the impression of doing so!) or opinions external to oneself – which don’t have to be ‘factual’ (e.g. argumentative essay, expository essay, news report, scientific article), then perhaps it would be better to opt for the third-person voice. 

The use of first vs third person in literary analysis 

In this post, let’s look at the use of first-person voice in a specific type of writing: the literary analysis essay. If you’re an English literature student, this should be no stranger to you. For others, think of this as the kind of writing one would find in literary criticism. 

Unlike the argumentative essay or the personal essay, the literary analysis essay defies categorical lines when it comes to narrative voice. This is because, despite the clear subjectivity in a kind of writing that is, in essence, a personal response to a literary work, this ‘personal response’ nonetheless seeks to persuade and establish authority in the vessel of a ‘literary analysis’, specifically by formulating an argument based on ‘objective’ observations (i.e. ‘objective’ because you’re partly describing what’s written in a poem / a novel). 

What does this mean, then?

Well, it tells us that while literary analysis is largely subjective in content, it often tries to be objective in tone. Commenting on literature isn’t quite the same as a casual book club conversation; it’s an exercise in rhetorical and aesthetic persuasion, for which you make a case about a specific interpretation of a text and convince your readers to see the logic behind it.

Of course, that’s not to say they necessarily have to agree with you (in fact it’s often better that they don’t), but unless you’re already an eminent literary scholar like Stephen Greenblatt or Christopher Ricks , then it’s probably best that you write your literary analysis more like a well thought-out argument, rather than a personal reflection. 

In other words, use third-person where possible in your English essays, and feature the ‘I’ pronoun sparingly – if at all. There’s also a debate about whether using the first-person collective ‘we’ is acceptable (e.g. “We can infer from Macbeth’s speech that Shakespeare was wary of power’s effects on man.”) Some people think it’s presumptuous – and therefore dangerously collectivising; I actually think it’s marginally better than using ‘I’, but still less preferable to the trusty third-person voice (e.g. “Macbeth’s speech suggests that Shakespeare was wary of power’s effects on man.”)

I mentioned the English literary critic and professor Christopher Ricks, who has been called “the greatest living critic today” by even his most esteemed contemporaries. There’s no better way to learn than to learn from the best, so let’s examine how Ricks writes in a manner that doesn’t compromise the singularity of his views, but still manages to convey objective restraint in thought. 

Christopher Ricks on Tennyson’s ‘Maud’ (from Tennyson )

Best known for his gothic, sentimental poetry, Alfred Lord Tennyson remains one of the most widely read Victorian poets today. His narrative poem, Maud: A Monodrama , tells of the tragic love between the eponymous character and the poem’s speaker. Our focus today is on the analysis, not the poem itself, so I’ll link to the poem here – if you’re interested in Victorian poetry or want to find a poem to practise your close reading skills on, I’d recommend that you give this a read. 

Ricks, in his seminal study on Tennyson, demonstrates real elegance in his commentary on ‘Maud’, an excerpt of which I’ll reproduce below for your reference (and for some, enjoyment): 

[Maud] is a poem about losing someone whom you have never really had. She is at first beautiful, but as a gem, as an epitome of womankind, as a phantasmal pulse, a dreamlike vision: Cold and clear-cut face, why come you so cruelly meek, Breaking a slumber in which all spleenful folly was drown’d, Pale with the golden beam of an eyelash dead on the cheek, Passionless, pale, cold face, star-sweet on a gloom profound; Womanlike, taking revenge too deep for a transient wrong Done but in thought to your beauty, and ever as pale as before Growing and fading and growing upon me without a sound, Luminous, gemlike, ghostlike, deathlike, half the night long Growing and fading and growing, till I could bear it no more, Among the things which [the speaker] cannot bear about Maud is the dread of her as a unique person; part of him wants her to be a snobbish puppet, part of him tries to divide her as he himself feels divided –  and adore, Not her, who is neither courtly nor kind, Not her, not her, but a voice. His love never becomes perfect, so it never altogether casts out fear; but it replaces fear and masochism by awe: “And dream of her beauty with tender dread…” – tender, both as sympathetically moved and as touchingly bruisable. Tender dread is never in Maud to be succeeded by the sober certainty of waking bliss; but it is a human advance. For Maud is an unprecedented evocation of a deep fear of love. “And most of all would I flee from the cruel madness of love”: Maud is not a poem which uses the word ‘madness’ lightly; the essential madness is the fear of love, and the hero is thinking not of traditional cheerful pangs, but of the worst psychic cowardice and dismay. What he centrally fears is not that he cannot be loved but that he cannot love.  Till a morbid hate and horror have grown Of a world in which I have hardly mixt, And a morbid eating lichen fixt On a heart half-turn’d to stone. ‘Hardly’ has a sardonic hardness. “Oh heart of stone, are you flesh, and caught/By that you swore to withstand?” Stone, but without the elegant fiction of statuary, which creates a flickering pun in “Wept over her” in these lines: She came to the village church, And sat by a pillar alone; An angel watching an urn Wept over her, carved in stone; So that it is not merely a social snub but an emasculating humiliation which is enforced by the threatening insouciance of Maud’s brother: But while I past he was humming an air, Stopt, and then with a riding whip Leisurely tapping a glossy boot, And curving a contumelious lip, Gorgonised me from head to foot With a stony British stare. The hideousness of the later debacle is that it forces the hero back into thinking he cannot love: “Courage, poor heart of stone!” he groans, “Courage, poor stupid heart of stone”.  […]

While Ricks the person is never too close for comfort to the poem’s distraught speaker, Ricks the critic shows a level of microscopic sensitivity to the poet’s diction and a degree of fraternal empathy in his judicious, but not altogether detached, observation of the speaker’s conflicted emotions. 

Notice as well that he’s able to convey his emotional response to Tennyson’s work without once having to summon the ‘I’ pronoun, or be jarringly explicit about his presence on the poem’s sidelines. 

As an insightful observer of a poetic work, Ricks engages analytically through appreciation and personally through respect, most evidently shown by the constant ‘touchstones’ of quoted lines he uses to guide his commentary. He makes it clear that the critic’s opinion does not override the poet’s narrative. 

This, surely, is no mere ‘analysis’, but intellectual pleasure in hermeneutic action. 

From reading Ricks’ writing, then, it should become clear that using third-person is a good idea when writing English essays, as it enables you to write in a more sophisticated, considered manner, all the while expressing your unique views towards a text. 

A final, but important note

As a final – and important – note, there’s another point to my meta-criticism of Ricks’ reading on Tennyson: reading literary criticism – good literary criticism – is absolutely necessary if you want to get better at writing literary analysis, or at English Literature in general.

While reading primary works (i.e. fiction and poetry) should always be the foundation of literary learning, it is equally important that we grant secondary work (i.e. literary criticism) the attention it deserves, because the act of interpreting literature is an art in itself. 

Mind you, I’m not telling you to consciously mimic the way these critics write; my point is just that the more we read what they say and appreciate the way in which they say it, the more our writing style will take on the intellectual rigour and stylistic sophistication so evident in the prose of people like Ricks. 

Do you use the first-person ‘I’ a lot in your writing? Or are you more partial to third-person? Comment below with your views! 

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In school and research, citing sources is super important. It proves you did your homework and lets others double-check your information. When you write in the third person, remember not to use words like "I" or "you." Stick to third-person words to keep it right.

Explore What is Third Person Writing in Essays

In academic writing, the third-person point of view is usually more explicit, allowing a writer to come across as more objective. When using third-person pronouns, the writer will not refer to themselves in the essay but instead use sources to support their claims.

You can use third-person writing in ads and persuasive stuff, too. It stops things from sounding too one-sided like they do in the first-person.

Learn More About Writing a Third Person in Academic Work

Writing in the third person means you step away from your essay completely. It might seem tough at first, but it gets easier with practice. Your argument becomes much more convincing when you remove yourself from the equation and let the facts speak for themselves. Discover the finesse of third-person writing in our latest blog post, where we'll guide you through the nuances of adopting this versatile style for impactful communication.

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How to write in third person.

The secret to writing well in the third person is to keep in mind that you're not the main character. Your role is to give reliable information and let the reader draw their own conclusions.

Learn how to effectively employ this approach in your research work

You should avoid using contractions such as "I'm," "you're," or "we'll." Writing in complete sentences will improve the caliber and professionalism of your essay.

• When writing in the third person, always use the pronoun "he, she, it" instead of "I, we, you."
• Use proper grammar and punctuation when writing in the third person.
• Be consistent with your point of view - don't alternate between writing in the third and first person in the same paragraph .
• Keep your audience in mind - who are you writing for? Make sure that your language and tone are acceptable for them.
• Remember that you are an observer in the third person point of view - so don't insert your own opinions or feelings into the story.

Types of 3rd Person Writing Point of View

There are three different kinds of third-person points of view:

• A limited point of view means that the narrator only knows what one character knows.
• The objective point of view means that the narrator does not reveal anything about any character's thoughts or feelings.
• An omniscient point of view means that the narrator knows everything about all characters in the story.

Third Person Limited vs. Objective vs. Omniscient

Considering these three points of view as different cameras filming a scene can be helpful.

• A limited point of view would be like having a camera following one character around so that the audience only sees what that character sees.
• The objective point of view would be like having a camera positioned in one spot so that the audience sees everything that happens but doesn't know what the characters think or feel.
• An omniscient point of view would be like having a camera that can film everything happening at once—the audience knows everything about all characters in the story.

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Which Essays are Written from a 3rd Person's Point of View?

1.      expository essays.

Expository essays are written in the third person because they explain something. The writer is not a character in the story and is instead just an observer. This type of essay is often used to describe a concept or idea.

2.      Argumentative Essays

Third-person narration is sometimes used while writing argumentative essays. Because the author is trying to persuade the reader of something,, and using the first person would make it seem like the writer is biased.

3.      Research Papers

Another sort of essay that is frequently written in the third person is the research paper. It is because the paper is meant to be factual account of what has been researched on a particular topic.

4.      Literary Analysis Essays

Literary analysis essays can be written in either the first or third-person point of view. However, the third-person point of view is more common because it allows the writer to remain objective and unbiased when discussing the author’s work.

5.      Descriptive Essays

Third-person views are sometimes used while writing descriptive essays.This is because the author is describing something to the reader without including their own opinion on the matter.

6.      Compare and Contrast Essays

Compare and contrast essays can be written in either first or third-person point of view. However, it is generally more accessible for the author to write in the third person point of view, allowing them to compare and contrast the two subjects more objectively.

7.      Personal Narratives

Typically, first-person narratives are used in personal essays, as they are about the author's personal experiences. However, writing a personal narrative in the third person is possible if the author is telling their story from a distance and does not include their own emotions or thoughts.

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What are the Benefits of Writing in the 3rd Person?

1.  more objective.

Writing in the third person keeps it fair and factual. First person might bring in your own biases. However, when you write in the third person, you can remain unbiased and present the facts without injecting your opinion. It can make your writing more credible and trustworthy.

2.  More Engaging

Another benefit of writing in the third person is that it can make your writing more engaging for the reader. When you write in the first person, the reader may feel they are being talked down to or lectured, but in third person, they become part of the story, making it more enjoyable and keeping them engaged.

3.  Easier to Write Complex Concepts

Third-person writing simplifies complex concepts. First person can sometimes sound condescending, but in the third person, you can present information in a way that is easy for the reader to understand. It will make your writing more accessible to a broader audience.

4.  Makes Your Writing More Professional

Writing in the third person makes your writing sound more professional and authoritative compared to first-person writing, which can sometimes come across as informal or inexperienced. So, using the third person can give your writing a polished and expert vibe.

5.  Helps You Maintain a Consistent Tone

Writing in the first person can lead to unintentional tone changes in your piece. For instance, you might begin formally but shift to a casual tone unknowingly. On the other hand, using the third person helps maintain consistent and polished writing throughout.

6.  Greater Flexibility

Writing in the third person offers more viewpoint flexibility compared to the first person, allowing you to present information from any perspective, which is valuable for discussing controversial topics.

7.      Avoiding Bias

Writing in the first person is prone to bias as it reflects personal viewpoints and interpretations. In contrast, when you write in the third person, you can remain unbiased and present information objectively.

Third-person writing is an essential skill all students must master to succeed in academia. This writing style removes the author from the equation and allows the facts to speak for themselves.

While it may take some practice to get used to writing in this style, it is well worth the effort as it will make your essays sound more credible and polished.

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Can You Use First Person in an Argumentative Essay?

by  Antony W

September 24, 2023

It’s tempting to use first person pronoun to write an argumentative essay. And if it’s your first time to write this type of an essay in college, the temptation can be real and intense.

After all, doesn’t writing an argumentative essay require you to choose a topic, do in-depth research, choose a standpoint and support it with reasonable evidence?

It does, but there are rules to follow when writing an essay that  argues your claims .  That includes choosing and using the correct kind of pronoun as expected in formal academic writing.

We don’t recommend using the first person pronoun in an argumentative essay. Unless your instructor suggests that you do so, omit it from the assignment because your writing will read better without it.  

From an academic standpoint, your professor expects the essay to speak facts, be 100% free from personal feelings, and academically reflect arguments that correspond with your opinion. 

Besides, using the first person pronoun makes an argumentative essay sound subjective, therefore spoiling its overall purpose.

You need to understand that an argumentative essay is completely different from persuasive essay or opinion writing.

Often, the goal is to provide arguments that you’d like the targeted readers to consider.

In particular, you present arguments based on facts provided in news articles, established research studies, books, and academically acknowledged sources .

Therefore, constantly using the first person statement not only make the essay sound somewhat biased but also tends to make it read like a personal narrative essay .

When to Use First Person in an Argumentative Essay

While it’s not appropriate to use first person in an argumentative essay, there are instances when it would make a lot of sense to do so. 

You can use it when: 

• 1Talking about a research you’ve conducted and its impact on the topic under investigation
• 2You want to share a personalized practice or life experience provided it fits the subject matter
• 3Using the results of your personal research as an argument in the essay
• 4You want to provide an anecdotal evidence that you can only tell well in first person
• 5Your instructor has asked you to give your personal reflection or opinion about the argumentative essay topic in question

As you can see, it’s impossible to explain some matters clearly without using the first person pronoun.

Most of the times, however, it’s best to use a neutral tone to present your arguments.

What Pronoun Should I Use in an Argumentative Essay?

You should only use the third person pronouns when writing an argumentative essay. These pronouns are he, she, theirs, its, they, it, hers, and them.

The third person is the best to use in academic writing because it not only has an authoritative stance but also makes your writing less personal and more credible and objective.

There are three type of third person point of view that you can use to write a killer argumentative essay. These are:

Third Person Omniscient

This third person point of view allows you to jump from one character to another.

Readers assume that you know a lot about each character and you can easily withhold or reveal actions, feelings, or thoughts.

Since you can move freely from thought to thought, this point of view allows you to give your observations and opinions as well as those of the characters.

Third Person Limited

This is where you identify a single character and focus on their beliefs, thoughts, characters, actions, and feelings.

This approach allows you either to limit the perspective of your reader or control the amount of information you’d like them to know in the essay.

Keep in mind that you can’t switch between characters in this point of view.

Third Person Objective

The third person objective allows you to describe a character at any place and time in your argumentative writing.

Again, you don’t confine yourself to a single character. Instead, you’re free to switch between characters in your essay as many times as required.

You shouldn’t use the second person pronouns in argumentative essay writing either.

Since they demonstrate familiarity with an audience, they tend to sound accusatory and therefore place unnecessary responsibility on the reader.

The trick to resisting the temptation of using a second person in writing an argumentative essay is to use general terms to refer to the subject.

Why Write an Argumentative Essay in Third Person Pronoun? 

Writing an argumentative essay in third person allows you to use relevant sources to complete the assignment.

The approach even allows you to list all the relevant sources used in writing the essay, which is necessary in academic writing.

Furthermore, using the third person point of view gives you the freedom to present concrete evidence to your readers without sounding too biased.

Get Essay Writing Help from Help for Assessment

Do you need help with essay writing but don’t know which academic writing agency to work with?

Or maybe you’re running out of time and you have an urgent assignment waiting for you?

Get in touch with Help for Assessment. Our writers work hand in hand with students to help them get their essays completed on time.

 Therefore, we can help you to write great argumentative essays even if the assignment is urgent.

The last mistake you want to make is to fill your argumentative essay with first person pronoun. Unless it’s necessary to do so, it makes perfect sense to avoid it.

Remember, arguments are facts, not opinions based on personal perspective. Terms such as “I believe”, “I think”, and “I feel”, can weaken your writing voice and make your arguments sound vague.

So even if you feel like you can explain a claim well with a more personalized line of defense, first write the statement without the first person pronoun and see what it sounds like.

You’ll realize that you don’t need the first person pronoun most of the time. 

About the author 

Antony W is a professional writer and coach at Help for Assessment. He spends countless hours every day researching and writing great content filled with expert advice on how to write engaging essays, research papers, and assignments.

Free Argumentative Text Passage for 3rd Grade

Scouring the internet for hours only to find argumentative text resources that are geared toward older kids feels like going bathing suit shopping after eating a #3 at Whataburger. Nothing fits, you can’t find anything you like, and you end up in tears.

Well, dry those eyes, Beautiful, because your day is about to get a lot easier.

Finally, a high-interest argumentative text passage for third graders. And it comes with two versions of response sheets to help your students organize their thoughts as they read it.

The best part? It’s completely free. Get it below.

I’m so excited to give you this free argumentative passage about recess. That’s right, your students are going to be reading about their favorite part of the school day. And they are going to love the author’s claim.

But recess isn’t just fun and games. In this passage, they’ll learn about ways recess can benefit them – physically, socially, and academically. The author cites evidence about these benefits to support her claim that recess is good for kids.

Why You'll Love It:

• The simple structure of this argumentative passage for third graders will help your students break down and identify the characteristics of argumentative text.
• The high-interest topic of the text will keep your kids fully engaged in your lesson.
• 2 versions of response sheets allow you to choose how you want to focus your lesson.
• Answer keys have been included to ease the burden on you.

Need Help Selecting More Argumentative Texts for Third Graders?

You’ll likely need more than one passage, so here are some tips to help you as you look for more.

Choose a high-interest topic.

Argumentative text can be a tough genre, so using a text with an engaging topic is important. Your kids will be more motivated to read and understand something they care about. So find an argumentative text that you know your students will be interested in. Some popular topics are video games , class pets , year-round school, and anything else that they encounter at school.

Consider the text structure.

I suggest starting the unit with a very basic text structure that only argues one point. This helps the kids wrap their heads around the genre, its structure, and characteristics. I would stick with this simple structure until your students understand how an author makes and supports his/her claim with facts and evidence. This free passage is perfect for this.

As you move through the unit, you may want to consider texts that present both sides of the argument in the same text.

Be sure it is argumentative, not persuasive.

I would advise against using the I Wanna… books and others like it because they are more persuasive in nature. We want our students to understand that argumentative texts rely on facts, evidence, and research rather than emotional pleas. You can read more about the difference between argumentative and persuasive texts here .

Don’t Want to Spend Any More Time Searching?

I don’t blame you. It’s rough out there. And finding the perfect fit is hard. Here are two sets of argumentative texts for 3rd graders. Both sets come with two different passages that make opposing claims about the topic. These are perfect for analyzing separately and comparing and contrasting.

If You Really Want to Save Time & Tears

This bundle has everything you need to teach argumentative text to your third graders and lifts all the hard work off your shoulders. It is all planned and ready to go.

What You'll Get:

• 5 easy to follow, scripted lesson plans take out all the guesswork.
• 3 of the 5 are PowerPoint lessons that make introducing the genre a breeze.
• A total of 7 high-interest passages will keep your students engaged.
• An assessment with an answer key is included.
• Interactive notebook pages help your students interact with the text and give them a tool to refer back to.
• Task cards help your students practice distinguishing fact from opinion and identifying evidence that supports the author’s claim.
• Plus, you’ll get resources for tier 2 vocabulary, grammar, and more!

Pin It for Later:

More About Argumentative Text:

What Is An Argumentative Text? How to Teach It in 3rd Grade

How to Teach Argumentative Text to 3rd Graders

Argumentative vs Persuasive Text: What’s the Difference?

Reading Comprehension Strategies That Will Help 3rd Graders Understand Argumentative Text

How to Introduce Argumentative Text to 3rd Graders

I help third and fourth grade RLA teachers like you create engaging and effective reading lessons without all the stress.

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A Critic’s Case Against Cinema

Sixty years ago, Pauline Kael said that the movies were going to pieces. In a sense, she was right.

This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic ’s archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here.

Before Pauline Kael was Pauline Kael, she was still very much Pauline Kael. When her first essay for The Atlantic ran in November 1964, she had not yet lost it at the movies . She had not yet become Pauline Kael, the vaunted and polarizing film critic for The New Yorker . She had not yet inspired a movement of imitators, the “Paulettes,” or established herself as one of the most influential film writers ever. But the stylistic verve, the uncategorizable taste, the flamethrowing provocation—they were all there. “There’s a woman writer I’d be tempted to call a three-time loser,” she wrote in her Atlantic essay. “She’s Catholic, Communist, and lesbian.”

The only unusual thing about this assault is that Kael does not name her target. Elsewhere in the essay, she doesn’t hesitate to do so. And no one is beyond reproach—not Luis Buñuel, not Michelangelo Antonioni, not Ingmar Bergman. She assails about a dozen notables in the course of a few thousand words, firing off zingers at machine-gun rate. Her appetite for pugilism and reservoir of snark are seemingly inexhaustible. Academics are cultural vampires. The critic Dwight Macdonald is a “Philistine.” The writer Susan Sontag is a “semi-intellectually respectable” critic who, unfortunately, has “become a real swinger.”

Kael’s Atlantic essay, which ran under the headline “Are Movies Going to Pieces?,” is a broad lament about the state of the industry and the art form, published at a moment when French New Wave and experimental art films were upending conventional assumptions about what a movie could or should be. Most audiences “don’t care any longer about the conventions of the past, and are too restless and apathetic to pay attention to motivations and complications, cause and effect,” she fretted. “They want less effort, more sensations, more knobs to turn.” In short, they’ve “lost the narrative sense.” Critics and art-house audiences weren’t any different. They’d been bamboozled into venerating pseudo-intellectual mumbo jumbo as high art. They’d come to accept “lack of clarity as complexity, [accept] clumsiness and confusion as ‘ambiguity’ and as style,” she wrote. “They are convinced that a movie is cinematic when they don’t understand what’s going on.”

Sixty years later, although Kael’s writing crackles as much as ever, much of her argument reads stodgy and conservative. She tries her best to preempt this charge—“I trust I won’t be mistaken for the sort of boob who attacks ambiguity or complexity”—and it’s true that her disdain for the new cinema is not uniform. She holds certain specimens in high regard, such as Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless and François Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player . But even so, she sometimes sounds like another old fogey grumbling about kids these days .

Her broader prognosis, though, is spot-on. In one sense at least, movies really were going to pieces. In the late 1950s and early ’60s, a gulf was opening between mass entertainment and high art, between movies and cinema. For the latter, Kael had boundless disdain. “Cinema,” she wrote, “is not movies raised to an art but rather movies diminished, movies that look ‘artistic.’” And its rise was a tragedy, a scourge that would over time kill what she loved about the form: “Cinema, I suspect, is going to become so rarefied, so private in meaning, and so lacking in audience appeal that in a few years the foundations will be desperately and hopelessly trying to bring it back to life, as they are now doing with theater.” It would become merely “another object of academic study and ‘appreciation.’”

Kael believed in movies as pop culture, believed their mass appeal was what gave them life. She wanted them to be something about which you could have an opinion without having any special expertise, something that regular people could talk about. And so she wrote about movies like a regular person—an extremely eloquent, extremely opinionated, extremely entertaining regular person, but a regular person all the same.

Whether or not you share Kael’s view that the movie-cinema schism was a disastrous development, her predictions have largely come to pass. Sixty years later, there are the films that win at the box office, and there are the films that win at the Oscars . (Not to mention the films that critics like best, which constitute a third category entirely.) Last summer’s Barbenheimer phenomenon was a notable exception, but the overall trend is clear . This year, the Golden Globes codified the divide with the introduction of a new award for Cinematic and Box Office Achievement—an award reserved for movies because the standard categories now primarily recognize cinema . And Kael saw it all coming back in 1964.

The debate about Sonia Sotomayor is not about sexism. It’s more dire.

Some want the Supreme Court justice to retire so that President Biden can name a replacement before... before what happens, exactly?

For the past few months there has been a stealth political campaign going on, the subject of which feels so unseemly that nearly every person publicly participating in the debate insists they would rather not be participating in it, and would, in fact, prefer the debate not be happening at all.

The question: Should Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor voluntarily retire before the next presidential election?

And, if your answer is yes, are you sexist?

And, if your answer is no, and you support liberal jurisprudence, are you a fool?

If you haven’t been following, the arguments — which have been laid forth by Josh Barro in the Atlantic , Nate Silver , Mehdi Hassan in the Guardian , Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) , and others — amount to this:

1) Sotomayor, at 69, is already several years older than the median American retirement age;

2) The justice’s Type 1 diabetes might indicate a more complicated health map than that of a typical septuagenarian;

3) In the not-unlikely event that Donald Trump wins the presidential election, and Sotomayor has to leave the court during his next term, we can presume that his replacement nominee will turn the Supreme Court into a 7-2 conservative supermajority with repercussions for decades to come.

In other words, Democrats might feel great about Sotomayor’s health and stamina now. But how much are they willing to bet that they’ll feel great about it in four or more years? (For what it’s worth, Barro et al. also make the case that a Democrat in the White House doesn’t ensure the safe passage of Sotomayor’s replacement to the high court, either: a flip of the Senate could result in a Merrick Garland redux, wherein a Republican majority refuses to confirm a Joe Biden nominee).

The counterarguments: That Sotomayor is far from the oldest judge on the court; Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito are six and five years older. That she is below the average retirement age — which is north of 75 — of Supreme Court justices over the past century. That the diabetes argument is ableist and ill-informed. That justices are freed from term limits for a reason: They are supposed to be immune to political pressure and decide for themselves when to retire.

And finally: Would we be having this discussion if Sotomayor were a man?

“Virtually every person ... pushing is male,” observed Slate writer Dahlia Lithwick on a recent podcast, “and the people defending her are female.”

This is the third draft I have tried to write of a column tackling this subject. The first time, I got bogged down in actuarial tables before accepting that I am not medically trained and I have no idea how long Sonia Sotomayor is going to live. The second time, I went deep on sociology, trying to unpack the gender-based and racial overtones (Sotomayor is the first Latina justice) that make this discussion so fraught, before accepting that I’m writing a column, not a dissertation.

The third time, I realized that I’d been examining the wrong questions. When you ask the right one — and there is only one — then answering it for yourself becomes easy:

Do you think the republic holds?

That is the only question that you need to answer for yourself when figuring out whether, if you are a liberal, you think Sonia Sotomayor should retire.

It’s a loaded question, though, so maybe the best way to answer it is to envision what you see as the most plausible shape American politics will take one or five years from now.

Would another Trump defeat cause his party to become more obstinate and conspiracy-minded, or less? Would his acolytes in Congress become more accepting of a Democratic president’s authority to issue orders and make appointments, or less? If Trump wins, what would “democratic norms” look like?

Do you picture a normal-feeling presidential inauguration in 2025, in which a mass-market pop star sings the national anthem? Or do you picture the Capitol police donning riot gear in preparation for a possible attack on the White House? Do you think the odds of an attack on the White House are actually better than zero?

The functioning of American government is based on a series of codes and agreements. The agreement that the transfer of power will be peaceful. The agreement that presidents should be allowed to appoint qualified justices to fill any Supreme Court vacancy that occurs during their presidency (i.e. the argument that Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell made when Donald Trump nominated Amy Coney Barrett) rather than Supreme Court vacancies being held open until the Senate likes the commander in chief (i.e. the argument that McConnell essentially made when Barack Obama nominated Garland).

The Style section

If you believe we are living in a reality in which the codes and agreements that support American governance will, though taxed, continue to support American governance, then you are fine with Sonia Sotomayor staying on the bench. You can trust that, actuarily speaking, she’ll likely feel great for another decade, and her eventual replacement will be chosen in a manner that is orderly and fair.

If you are a liberal who believes that the next election might fundamentally cripple American democracy, then you don’t want to rely on actuarial tables. You want a spry 49-year-old, right now, who will dedicate the next quarter century to protecting marriage equality and reinstating Roe.

Do you believe the republic holds?

It’s the question that already underpins this debate about Sotomayor. It is the grand, psychic fear that is running subconsciously through everyone’s mind as they get lost in oddly specific discussions about whether — and this was a real debate — the “medic” that Sotomayor has traveled with, according to U.S. Marshals Service records, referred to a human medical professional or merely to medical equipment.

What I appreciate about this question is that it is unsentimental and unsparing. Answering it for yourself does not require you to unpack all of your feelings about Sotomayor as an individual. It also does not require you to solve sexism, although I frankly think Would you be asking this if she were a man? is not the gotcha question people present it as. I don’t think people would be asking this question if Sotomayor were a man; I think people would be demanding it. I think it would be the “Retire, Breyer” movement we saw back in 2022, but dialed up to 11.

Do you think the republic holds does not require you to get philosophical about what the founders intended, or what is just, or what is optimal. It requires you to get practical about what is . Not: Is it fair that some people are laying the entire broken burden of American jurisprudence on the shoulders of one woman? But rather: Where is the Band-Aid? Does someone have a Band-Aid?

If you feel optimistic about the future of the country and are liberal-minded about the law, then I encourage you to feel confident and reassured by Sotomayor’s presence on the Supreme Court. If you end up thinking that she should retire, then you can, and should, insist that her replacement be another brilliant and eminently qualified woman, and you should make sure Joe Manchin III is ready and willing to vote for that replacement.

But this isn’t about Sotomayor. This is about what people think America will look like when Sotomayor eventually does shuffle off this mortal coil. Which I sincerely hope happens when she is in the middle of writing another delightful children’s book, or going dancing, or cycling leisurely around Washington at the age of 112.

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The First Six Weeks of Pregnancy, Explained

Florida has banned most abortions after six weeks. Experts explain how that can often be before a woman knows she is pregnant.

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By Alisha Haridasani Gupta

By the time a woman is considered six weeks pregnant, she would have had two weeks, at most, to realize it.

That’s because the gestational age of a fetus is counted not from the moment that sperm fertilizes an egg or from the moment you have a positive pregnancy test, but weeks earlier, on the first day of the previous menstrual cycle. This means that just two weeks after a missed period, a woman is six weeks pregnant, said Dr. Dawnette Lewis, director of Northwell Health’s Center for Maternal Health in New York and a maternal fetal medicine specialist.

That’s if someone has a typical menstrual cycle, which lasts about four weeks. But several factors — including stress, perimenopause and certain health conditions — can make the menstrual cycle so unpredictable that it could take longer than six weeks for someone to realize they might be pregnant.

“People come in and they’re like, ‘I’ve always had irregular periods and I just thought I was gaining weight’ and lo and behold, they are pregnant,” said Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah, a fertility doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of environmental and reproductive health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The question of how soon it’s possible to detect and confirm a pregnancy has come into focus as new abortion restrictions have been enacted in 21 states , including in Florida, where a ban on most abortions after six weeks took effect May 1. Florida is the third state to ban abortions at this point in pregnancy.

We asked experts to explain how the first six weeks of pregnancy unfold, and what factors might make a pregnancy hard to detect.

Weeks 1 to 2:

If an egg isn’t fertilized, the uterus sheds its lining. The first day of bleeding is considered Day 1 of a menstrual cycle. Typically, this bleeding lasts between three and seven days, Dr. Lewis said.

As the bleeding subsides, estrogen and another hormone, called follicle stimulating hormone or F.S.H., begin to rise. Together, they nudge the ovaries to produce a mature egg and create a fresh uterine lining for a potential fertilized egg.

At or around Day 14 of a cycle, the ovary would typically release an egg. If an egg is released and sperm is present, fertilization can occur in the fallopian tube a day or two after ovulation.

Weeks 3 to 4:

If an egg has been fertilized, which typically travels into the uterus and implants itself on the lining, where it can become an embryo. This can take around a week or more, said Dr. Michael Belmonte, an obstetrician-gynecologist and fellow at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Once this happens, the body begins producing a hormone called human chorionic gonadotropin, also known as the pregnancy hormone. This tells the ovaries to hold off producing another egg.

At implantation, a woman would technically be considered about four weeks pregnant, based on how gestational age is calculated. But she would likely not have any physical symptoms of pregnancy, like nausea or fatigue. HCG levels may also be too low to be detected by an at-home pregnancy test; it is only detectable about a week after implantation, Dr. Belmonte said.

It is impossible to know if the embryo will keep developing normally or whether it even implanted in the uterus, said Dr. Mahalingaiah. About half of fertilized embryos do not end up implanting at all. In an estimated 2 percent of pregnancies, the embryo implants elsewhere, like the fallopian tube. This is known as an ectopic pregnancy and can be life-threatening, requiring medical or surgical intervention.

If you are pregnant, this is, roughly speaking, the earliest that you might be able to detect a pregnancy at home. If you have a regular four-week cycle, have missed your period and think you might be pregnant, you might take a urine test at home at the tail end of this week, which would pick up elevated hCG levels.

But there are several reasons to expect a period to be irregular and not think to take a pregnancy test at this point. Polycystic ovarian syndrome , which affects as many as five million women in the United States, can disrupt ovulation and cause irregular menstrual cycles, as can other endocrine disorders like thyroid disease. Significant amounts of stress in the first two weeks of your cycle can delay ovulation or menstruation, said Dr. Mahalingaiah, as can a bad case of the flu. Those who are in perimenopause, the transition to menopause, experience increasingly irregular ovulation as they approach the end of their reproductive years. This means that their menstrual cycles can change in length every month , often by several weeks.

Even if you did suspect you were pregnant around week 5, a health care provider would not be able use an ultrasound to confirm that a pregnancy is viable, because there would be no fetal cardiac activity yet. The pregnancy may also turn out to have been what is known as a biochemical pregnancy, Dr. Mahalingaiah said. When this happens, someone might test positive on an early home pregnancy test, but the fetus doesn’t develop further. This results in a pregnancy loss that simply looks like a late period. Some research suggests an estimated 22 percent of pregnancies end this way.

This is approximately when an ultrasound could pick up fetal cardiac activity, which can sound like a heartbeat. Some states require an ultrasound before a woman can obtain an abortion, including a medication abortion. Florida requires two in-person visits, 24 hours apart, including an ultrasound. The new law also prohibits telehealth providers from prescribing medication to end a pregnancy.

That timing, Dr. Belmonte said, leaves women with “a very small window” in which to confirm a pregnancy and obtain an abortion.

Alisha Haridasani Gupta is a Times reporter covering women’s health and health inequities. More about Alisha Haridasani Gupta