Writing in the Third Person

What does this mean?

If you are writing an e-mail to a friend or relation, updating your Facebook profile, tweeting about what you think, or even filling in a job application you tend to write in the first person. This means describing yourself as I, or saying things like “I went to a bar last night” or “I will swim in the sea on Saturday”. You might also talk about “my book” or give your opinion about something saying “it seems to me”.

This is fine in everyday life and your friends and family would think you were a bit strange if you started saying things like “a bar was visited last night” or “the sea will be swum in on Saturday”. However, in academic writing that is exactly what you would need to do.

How do I do that?

In academic writing you need to find impersonal ways of expressing your ideas and intentions.

For example: you might say to your friend 

“for my dissertation I will be trying to find the relationship between money spent on advertising and increased consumer spending”.

That is fine, you are telling your friend what you are going to do in clear simple English.

However, in your dissertation proposal you would have to put this into third person language. 

For example:

“This dissertation will explore the relationship between money spent on advertising and increases in consumer spending”.

By removing the personal (first person) language, and by focusing on the subject (in this case, the dissertation) rather than yourself as the author, this is now written in the third person.

“I will be trying to find” has been replaced with “This dissertation will explore”. It may sound odd, because it is really you who is going to do the research, but your marker will know that.

How do I express my own opinion in third person language?

One of the most confusing things about writing at university is the idea that markers want to know your opinion, but that they want you to avoid saying “I think”. 

You can overcome this with phrases such as:

• • • It would appear that ...

    • The evidence would suggest that ...

    • It could be argued that ...

These are all subtle ways of saying ‘I think’ in the third person. It is also very important to support your opinion with evidence, and so you might say: 

• • • The findings of the study support the conclusion that ...

    • Martin’s findings (2012) that ... would support the argument that ...

    • Truss’s argument (2011) that ... would lead to the conclusion that ...

The more you use third person language in your academic writing the better you will get at it.

What to avoid

In some academic writing you may find phrases like:

• • • The researcher will examine ...

    • This author is of the opinion that ...

    • One argues that ...

    • 
      

Many academics suggest that this is another way of referring to yourself as I, by giving yourself an alias. You usually do not need to do this. There is always a way of rephrase your points to avoid first person writing. However, if you have been asked to write a reflective assignment (as noted earlier in this hand-out) your marker may encourage you to refer directly to yourself. If in doubt, please speak to your course team about this. 

It is worth developing this skill as most markers will appreciate you writing in the third person. The more you do it the better you will get at it.

Using Contractions

Contractions are considered unsuitable for academic writing as they are too informal. Academic writing aims to convey information in a clear, precise, and formal manner. 

Contractions, involve the omission of letters or sounds to combine two words (e.g., "can't" for "cannot" or "it's" for "it is"), and introduce a conversational tone that undermines your academic voice.

Writing words in full, rather than using contractions also ensures that the intended meaning of a sentence is more clear to your reader.

While contractions are perfectly appropriate in casual or informal writing, they should be avoided in academic writing to maintain a formal, precise, and authoritative style.

What are quotations, paraphrasing and summarising and how are they different?

The difference between them lies in how close your writing is to the source writing.

Quotations must be identical to the original, using a narrow segment of the source. They must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the original author. 

Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it. 

Summarising involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarised ideas to the original source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material. 

1. Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning. 

2. Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase. 

3. Check your paraphrase with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form. 

4. Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source. 

5. Write down the source (including the page) so that you can credit it easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper. 

Examples:

The original passage: 

Students frequently overuse direct quotations in taking notes, as a result they overuse quotations in the final research paper. Probably only about 10% of a final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47. 

A legitimate paraphrase: 

In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note-taking, it is essential to minimise the material recorded verbatim (Lester, 1976). 

An acceptable summary: 

Students should take just a few notes in direct quotations from sources to help minimise the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester, 1976). 

A plagiarised version: 

Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.

Paraphrase the following passage.

Ask yourself

1. What is the important information in this passage?

2. What do I want to get from it?

There is clear evidence that an unhealthy diet is related to increased risk for a range of chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and cancer (American Institute for Cancer Research, 2007). Diet plays a direct role in increasing risk of these chronic diseases, and additionally contributes to increased risk indirectly through overweight and obesity (American Institute for Cancer Research, 2007). Dietary recommendations to reduce chronic disease risk include lowering saturated fat, trans fat, and red meat consumption, and increasing fruit and vegetable intake (American Institute for Cancer Research, 2007; National Institutes of Health, 2002).

Worksites represent an important venue for influencing dietary patterns. Given the considerable time workers spend on their jobs, worksites offer an important venue to reach large numbers of workers in order to provide on‐going education as well as healthy food options. In addition, through worksites it may be possible to support behavior changes long term through co‐worker support, changes in the foods available at work, and consideration of other work‐related factors associated with workers' dietary patterns (Sorensen et al., 2004a; Sparling, 2010; Story et al., 2008; Egerter et al., 2008). There is a growing body of evidence supporting the efficacy of these worksite approaches in promoting healthy diets (Glanz et al., 1996; Hennrikus and Jeffery, 1996; Benedict and Arterburn, 2008; Matson‐Koffman et al., 2005; Janer et al., 2002; Engbers et al., 2005; Pelletier, 2009).

Quintiliani, L., Poulsen, S., & Sorensen, G. (2010). Healthy eating strategies in the workplace. International Journal of Workplace Health Management, 3(3), 182–196. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538351011078929 

Academic Caution (or 'Hedging')

A key benefit of writing with caution is that your reader will be more likely to see your work as being credible, as you are producing a more believable argument.

Examples of cautious words

Cautious writing uses language which avoids being too definite. Here are some examples which you may be able to use in your own writing:

What does cautious writing look like?

Some examples of unsupported views compared to cautious writing:

An example of cautious writing in an essay about business success:

Question:

What is the most important factor for the success of a business?

Answer fragment (sample):

The findings of Taylor and Jolie (2019) suggest that building strong relationships with customers is the most important factor for business success. Consequently, it could be suggested that this approach may enhance business performance overall. However, Arndell (2022) disputes this, which indicates disagreements within existing research on this topic. Yet there appears to be a general consensus around the value of appropriate marketing strategies, as noted by Patel and Jones (2023), which indicates that this may be a key factor for consideration in terms of business success. However, it is acknowledged that other factors also contribute to this concept, as stated by Hallock (2020).

Notice how the sample of cautious writing did the following:

• Said that the findings of other people suggested rather than proved things

• Used words which show that something may be the case, but is not definite

• Put across a clear view on the topic of business success, while acknowledging that other options also exist

• Final tip – avoid the words “obvious” and “clearly”. Something may seem clear to you - but you should not make assumptions about your reader's thoughts.

More Examples

Compare the following:

• The commitment to some of the social and economic concepts was less strong than it is now.

• It may be said that the commitment to some of the social and economic concepts was less strong than it is now.

• The lives they chose seem overly ascetic and self-denying to most women today.

• The lives they chose may seem overly ascetic and self-denying to most women today.

• Weismann proved that animals become old because, if they did not, there could be no successive replacement of individuals and hence no evolution.

• Weismann suggested that animals become old because, if they did not, there could be no successive replacement of individuals and hence no evolution.

• Yet a recalcitrant trustee did not remain in possession of the property entrusted to him.

• Yet often it cannot have been the case that a recalcitrant trustee remained in possession of the property entrusted to him.
  
  

• Recent work on the religious demography of Northern Ireland shows a separating out of protestant and catholic, with the catholic population drifting westwards and vice versa.

• Recent work on the religious demography of Northern Ireland indicates a separating out of protestant and catholic, with the catholic population drifting westwards and vice versa.

• By analogy, one can walk from one point in hilly country to another by a path which is always level or uphill, and yet a straight line between the points would cross a valley.

• By analogy, it may be possible to walk from one point in hilly country to another by a path which is always level or uphill, and yet a straight line between the points would cross a valley.

• There are cases where this would have been the only possible method of transmission.

• There are certainly cases where this would seem to have been the only possible method of transmission.

• Nowadays the urinary symptoms are of a lesser order.

• Nowadays the urinary symptoms seem to be of a lesser order.

Further information from the UEFAP website (http://www.uefap.com/writing/feature/hedge.htm)

Critical Thinking & Writing

At university we want you to be critical of what you are reading.  It is okay to say it is not appropriate for whatever reason, provided you can justify what you are saying. 

Being critical is something we do all of the time, from the products we buy, to what we read and believe.  Critical thinking at university means you ask questions about what you are reading, writing and hearing to work out why one piece of evidence may corroborate your argument, whilst another will not.

Critical thinking video resources

How to evaluate the quality of the evidence

• • Check the date of the research. Is it out of date? 

  • Check the sources of the information. Are they reliable? 

  • How was the data collected, were the research methods reliable? 

  • Does the evidence support the conclusion? 

Writing Strong Arguments 

Critical Writing

Most university assignments require you to construct an argument. This may be different from the kind of descriptive writing that you did before coming to university.

What makes good argumentative writing?

• State a point of view and give a clear line of reasoning to support it

• Offer evidence or examples to support your argument

• Show where the evidence came from and show that it is reliable, by referencing

• Show that you have considered the possible arguments that might contradict your case

• Be able to demonstrate why your argument is reasonable

Adapted from Stella Cottrell, Study Skills Handbook

Example:

Assertion: Amazon charges different prices to different buyers of the same product, depending on their profiles.

Evidence: Tanner (2014) has reported that Amazon has varied prices by as much as 166%, based customer profile. Dyer (2015) states that this is through the use of cookies.

Reasoning: 

(Reasoning is your interpretation of the facts and opinions given by other writers).

This suggests that Amazon is using some type of customer profiling, possibly cookies, to assess the price levels that individual customers are willing to pay, and offering goods at those price levels.

This is interpretation, it shows your marker how you understand the evidence. This makes an argument. However, you can make the argument stronger.

Evaluate the evidence

• How strong is the evidence?

• How did Tanner find out that Amazon varies prices by up to 166%?

• What research methods were used?

• How does Dyer know that this is achieved through the use of cookies?

• Was this discovered through research or guessing?

• What about the age of the research, is it dated?

• Can the evidence be relied on?

Strengthening your argument based on the evaluation of the evidence:

Thus, the evidence appears to support the assertion that Amazon charges different prices to different buyers, depending on their profile. However, it is not clear how the evidence was collected. The source is four years old and Amazon may have

changed their practices in that time. There is no information about how Dyer found out that this was through the use of cookies, thus this may be a guess. Therefore it cannot be confirmed whether or not Amazon is using this practice or whether cookies have been used in its operation.

To ensure that your arguments are strong, make sure:

Your arguments have:

• An assertion - a statement about something.

• Evidence - the academic material you are using for reference (what has been said about the topic).

• Reasoning - the relationship between different concepts, assertions and evidence. Your analysis of the evidence to decide whether it supports the assertion and why. 

You evaluate the evidence to decide how strong or reliable it is

You show the marker your evaluation of the evidence by writing about any doubts you have, or showing how it supports the assertion.

References:

Ramsay, P, Maier P, & Price G, (2018), Study Skills for Business and Management Students,

Pearson Education Ltd, Edinburgh

Cottrell, S. (2008), The Study Skills Handbook. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan