Personal pronoun in essays (1 Viewer)

[EvansOne]

I've been viewing a few 'A-A+ range' essays for Module B, in particular speeches, and I've noticed that some of them use personal pronoun in sending their message across, i.e. "I believe this is important because...". I know the markers are after an 'informed, personal understanding' but is doing this the right way to go about it? In other words, if I were to do this would it make any difference? Are we supposed to do this?

 

[TheOptimist]

You can link the first person pronoun to the conventions of rhetoric i.e. pathos, ethos and logos, it's a technique that works particularly well with speeches, imo if you were to put this in it could potentially make your argument stronger, and there is no real harm in doing so

 

[Absolutezero]

There's better ways to do it than using first person. Your analysis and content needs to be spectacular for it to be at all effective in this type of writing.

 

[louielouiee]

Well Module B is a 'Close Study of Text.' Basically the marker wants to know what you have learnt/ what has been been changed by as a result of reading the text. Hence, the use of personal voice should be incorporated effectively. Pretty much my whole cohort uses personal voice in some way or another.

 

[barbernator]

Well Module B is a 'Close Study of Text.' Basically the marker wants to know what you have learnt/ what has been been changed by as a result of reading the text. Hence, the use of personal voice should be incorporated effectively. Pretty much my whole cohort uses personal voice in some way or another.

"personal voice" doesn't necessitate "first person".

 

[deswa1]

I use first person but it depends on the question. Our trial question asked "What factors have shaped your interpretation of Hamlet" so I pretty much used first person throughout because it was really asking for my opinion. Generally in Mod B, I'll use it occassionaly but mostly it will be "a responder" etc

 

[Ealdoon]

I haven't heard someone say "personal pronoun" for a while

 

[elissajean]

It's best not to use "I" statements in essays; the people who got high marks in their HSC responses who used the personal pronoun probably got high marks in spite of that. They must have developed an insightful, well-structured argument.

 

[lisarhhh]

can i view the essays that youve been looking at too?