1st, 2nd and 3rd Person Speech

To further the investigations of media products I have been asked to research the three different narrative types. The three narrative types are 1st, 2nd and 3rd person. Having the ability to speak and write in different narrative types is an advantage as you can make your text effective. For example you would write in 1st person if you were writing an autobiography as you are talking about yourself and saying words such as I, I went, mine, I did. If you were writing in second person you would use language such as go, yours and you. This text would be used in instructions and directions. If you were writing in 3rd person you would use language such as him/her, they and them. You would use this language if you were talking about others.

An example of first person speech is,

"Today I went to the shop. There were many choices that I had to make. The first choice was to whether I wanted free range eggs or not. I didn’t know what the difference was at the time so I purchased free range. I then moved onto the tills, I needed to load all of my products onto the counter. To make a purchase I needed to find my wallet."

Here is an example of second person speech,

"Firstly you need to open the flour and mix well. Secondly you need to add 200ml of milk. Make sure you do not add semi skimmed milk as the output of the recipe will be affected. Furthermore you need to add one egg. Gently crack the egg against the bowl ensuring no shell falls into the mixture."

And finally here is an example of third person speech,

"You know them boys over there, they are so messy. They have ate their dinner but they haven’t cleared up their mess. They should get punished for what they have left behind."

All of the above narrative types are essential to take into consideration when producing a media text. If you want to write an article or a document on cars, you need to make sure you have selected the correct narrative format to use depending on the content and type of media.