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Contributor: Erin Jones. Lesson ID: 11801
One man's trash is another man's treasure. One person's music is another's noise. It all depends on how you look at it! Perspective is vital in writing; it is our view that this lesson will help you!
Perspective is the way someone sees or thinks about something. It's like looking at a picture from different angles.
People might have different perspectives because of their experiences and feelings. For example, two friends might look at a rainy day, and one might feel happy because they like the rain, while the other might feel sad because they want to play outside.
Try the fun perspective activity in the video below.
Perspective is the second of four components in a personal narrative.
Your perspective is unique to you and is formed by your life experiences, beliefs, and ideas.
Look at the drawing below.
Your experiences impact your view of this picture. One person may see the bill of a duck, but another person may see the ears of a rabbit.
Say out loud what you saw when you first looked at the picture. As you do, pay close attention to the words you use to know about your experience.
That's because you are speaking about your personal experiences in a first-person point of view.
When you write your narrative, it is important to remember that you are the narrator and telling the story. Throughout your story, you must use personal pronouns (I, me, us, we, and our).
It is your story told from your perspective, from the first-person point of view.
We all see the world differently and may look at the same situation differently. This is because everyone has unique experiences, values, and social and cultural backgrounds.
These things shape our perspective or take on a situation. They cause us to react in a certain way to a particular problem.
When we retell the situation, we do so from our unique perspective, in the first person. A person can tell a story differently, but in the first person, I tells the story.
I am the main character in the story, and I relate my experiences directly to my audience.
Just so you are aware, there is also a second-person point of view. This is when the story is addressed to you. This point of view is most common in nonfiction writing.
Then, there is the third-person point of view, which comes in two flavors: limited and omniscient. This is the most common point of view in fiction. It is when the narrator is outside of the story and relates the experiences of a character. You can recognize this point of view when the story is about him or her.
Third-person point of view omniscient is when the story is still about them, but the narrator has full access to the thoughts and experiences of all characters. You can recognize this point of view when the narrator can quickly jump from character to character and tell the audience what various characters are thinking or feeling.
Now that you know your narrative should reflect your perspective and be written in the first person, it's time to think about how to put your thoughts together.
Head to the Got It? section to explore perspective in depth!
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