2. Perspective & Point of View

3. The perspective is whose side of the story is being told. “That rotten wolf tried to eat us!!!!” “I was framed! I just wanted to borrow a cup of sugar!”

4. Point of View refers to the way a story is narrated. A story may be narrated by a character in the story or by an outside narrator that is not part of the story. Thus, there are 2 points of view from which a story may be narrated: first person and third person.

5. First Person Point of View The first person refers to the pronoun “I”. In stories written in the first person point of view, the narrator is not only the teller of the story, but is also a participant in the story. The narrator is a character in the story who refers to him-or herself as “I”. First Person pronouns can help you recognize this point of view: I, me, my, we, our, us Watch speaker tags such as “I said” or “I thought” to help identify first person narration.

6. Third Person Point of View A story told in the third person point of view is told by an unseen, unknown narrator outside of the story. The narrator is not a character or participant in the story. The narrator may tell the story from the perspective of one character or several characters. The narrator may reveal as much or as little about characters as the author wishes. Watch speaker tags such as “he said” or “she said” to aid in identifying third-person narration. In the third person point of view, the narrator uses third person pronouns to refer to all the characters. Third person pronouns include “he”, “she”, “they”, “him”, “her”, “their”, etc. Recognizing them may help you identiry third person narration.