Angela has taught middle and high school English, Business English and Speech for nine years. She has a bachelor's degree in psychology and has earned her teaching license.
Point of view can be a tricky aspect of the written word. It's often not even noticed when we read text. However, when there are errors with point of view, most of us will realize something seems off.
Point of view is the perspective of how a story is told or the position of the narrator. Essentially point of view is one of the most important aspects of writing because it defines how the information is presented. Who is telling the story is a major factor in what information is given or how it's skewed.
The rest of this lesson outlines how you can identify shifts in point of view in a text.
Before we get into how point of view can shift, first we need to establish the three different points of view. Here are the definitions with an example for each.
These examples show how the perspective changes depending on the narrator's relation to the events occurring. The use of pronouns is a very good way to identify which point of view a text is using.
Now that you can identify the three types, we can now discuss shifts in point of view. As a general rule, you want to avoid any sort of shifting in point of view. If a writer is inconsistent or shifts point of view unnecessarily, the reader will be confused. The message of the text could be lost.
Consider the following example.
Who is the one trying to lose weight? We first get the male pronoun he, but the second part of the sentence switches to the second person you. Is the author speaking about himself? Is he giving advice to the reader? The shift in pronouns creates questions that the reader should not have to ask.
Here is another example.
Did you notice the shift from third person to first? The perspective of the first sentence is outside of the events. However, the second sentence shifts to make the narrator the one who is engaged. This confusion should be avoided at all costs.
Now that you have seen some common errors in shifting point of view, we can look at the few instances where a shift could be appropriate.
The first occurs within dialogue. Look at the example we saw earlier.
What's the difference here? Adding the quotations and the phrase he exclaimed, changed the second sentence to dialogue. The shift in point of view now makes sense, as the quotations keep the narrator outside of the story. Note, too, that the dialogue used the first person pronoun I. In this instance, the dialogue calls for the change in pronoun use.
A second example of an appropriate shift in point of view occurs with specific extracts within a larger text. Imagine you are reading a novel written in third person. The narrator is outside of the story and does not take part in the action. At some point, there is an extract from the main character's diary. What point of view should the diary entry be in? Should it stay in third person?
In this case the diary should shift to first person, since the character is within the story and has personal experience with the events and plot.
A final case of appropriate shift occurs with a flashback, which is a brief moment in a text where an event that occurred prior to the story is shown. Similar to a diary entry, the flashback might switch to first person point of view. However, a third person narrator could also express a flashback. If this occurs, then there is no need for a shift.
To review, point of view is the perspective of how a story is told or the position of a narrator. There are three types of point of view. First person point of view is when the narrator is within the story. Second person point of view occurs when the narrator is speaking directly to the reader. Third person point of view is when the narrator is outside of the story.
In general, you should avoid shifts in point of view at all costs. Check for changes in the pronoun use in order to identify errors in shifting. However, shifts in point of view can be appropriate if there is dialogue, an extract separate from the original text, or a flashback.
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