Writing exam answers in first person?

Hey,

I've never done this before but just wondering would I lose marks for "styllistic, clear writing" if I wrote my answers in first person. E.g. I believe... blah blah.

Thanks

Reply 1

Chlorophile

20

It depends on what you're writing. If you're meant to be writing a formal essay, report or anything that's meant to be completely factual, don't use the first person. If it's an opinion piece I suppose you could but you also have to bear in mind that most articles are written to inform. Most people won't care what your personal opinion is unless you're an important figure, so try to avoid bringing yourself into an answer (unless it explicitly requests for you to do it).

Reply 2

Cryl

OP

15

Original post by Chlorophile

It depends on what you're writing. If you're meant to be writing a formal essay, report or anything that's meant to be completely factual, don't use the first person. If it's an opinion piece I suppose you could but you also have to bear in mind that most articles are written to inform. Most people won't care what your personal opinion is unless you're an important figure, so try to avoid bringing yourself into an answer (unless it explicitly requests for you to do it).

I see. Thanks. What about questions that ask you to evaluate pieces of research?

Reply 3

Rascacielos

19

It's more 'academic' to write in third person, e.g. "it should not be forgotten that," "it seems that," "this leads to the conclusion that..." I know it's a bit of a farse, but it does read better and if you go onto university, it's a style of writing you are definitely going to need to adopt.

EDIT: Obviously if you're doing an English exam and writing creatively, then use the correct person (e.g. first person if you're writing a diary entry or even a formal letter). The above applies to academic writing, essays, etc - I'm sure you get my drift.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 4

Chlorophile

20

Original post by Cryl

I see. Thanks. What about questions that ask you to evaluate pieces of research?

I don't see how writing in the first person would be appropriate there. It's not asking you what your opinion about the research is, it's asking you to evaluate the research. It's not a personal question.

Reply 5

Rascacielos

19

Original post by Chlorophile

I don't see how writing in the first person would be appropriate there. It's not asking you what your opinion about the research is, it's asking you to evaluate the research. It's not a personal question.

I presume the point is that you have to reach a conclusion about the research, so you might say "to conclude, I think that...." Although I agree that it's much better to use the third person ("in conclusion, it appears that..."), I expect you do have to express an opinion of some kind when evaluating research.

Reply 6

roflcakes1

14

Most teachers advise not to, but I don't think they can really penalise you for doing it, especially if the rest of your writing is clear. I think it's just because most of the time, when people start to write in the first person they automatically write more informally affects the style of writing.

Instead of writing in the first person you can use phrases such as 'it appears that' or 'it could be argued that' etc. I would advise not to use first person when evaluating research, as this requires an objective view and first person tends to make everything appear subjective, and therefore not really valid (especially for science subjects).

Reply 7

JollyGreenAtheist

14

In some instances in English essays, where a personal response to a literary stimulus is required, it can be acceptable to use the first person.

I was doing an A2 English Lit piece of coursework, comparing two pieces of War Lit, and I said something like "Remarque's use of blahblahblah reminded me of Jacob Epstein's seminal sculpture, 'The Rock Drill', because..." and I wasn't penalised at all for it.

Reply 8

Cryl

OP

15

Thanks guys! I'll stick to third person writing style. :smile:

Writing exam answers in first person?

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