When telling a story, writing in the third person gives the writer more control, allowing them to be all-seeing and all-knowing. The same thing applies when you are writing a business proposal or report. Most corporate and business guidelines now suggest writing in the third person. It’s more formal than the first or second person.
When writing, you can write in the first person (referring to yourself or the person speaking), second person (referring to the person that you are talking to), or the third person (someone looking in, someone other than the person speaking or the person being spoken to). The major advantage of writing in the third person is how much flexibility and objectivity it provides. Third-person pronouns are its, hers, their, they, she, he, etc.
An example of writing in the third person is “Users will appreciate this application more if it had a one-stroke login system” instead of “You will appreciate this application more if it had a one-stroke login system”.
Useful Techniques for Writing in Third-Person Point of View
When you are working on a business report, there are a few techniques that you could use making your third-person narrative stronger. Some of them include:
- Carefully choose the perspective that will be best for whatever you are trying to say in your business report. You could go with omniscient, objective, or limited.
- Stay consistent with the pronouns in the third person. Do not deviate or break from character. Use “he”, “she”, “they”, “them”, “it” and avoid pronouns like “you”, “I, “yours” etc.
- Do not stick to just one point of view, especially when you are writing in the omniscient point of view. You can explain in all the points of view available without breaking character, keeping the readers intrigued.
- Do not move back and forth from the third and first-person. When you are writing a business report, it is quite easy to get drawn in the first person narrative unconsciously. Avoid that by consistently checking your work to make sure you are not slipping into your own perspective. Check for pronouns like my, mine, our, us, me, and I. This is usually straightened out while editing your work.
- If you are using the “limited” point of view, then always remember that your audience knows only what you do. Keep up with the audience by not giving them more than they know. Assume that you only know as much as your audience does and do not accidentally slip into the future. While editing, check to make sure that you didn’t get ahead of yourself and give your readers more information than they should have. It will kill the suspense and take away curiously in a business proposal where you need investors captivated.
- If you are just conveying facts to your audience without involving emotions then you may want to use the objective point of view. Here you are not trying to play on anyone’s emotions but just list and draw conclusions based on these facts. Describe scenarios that may be touching, but stay factual. For example instead of:
“The problem with using the second method to milk cows is that it is extremely painful for the cow. Sadly, the cow generates only so much milk and this process affects the poor thing by causing it to generate bloody milk which takes longer to process”
You could objectively say:
“Using the second method to milk a cow is painful for the cow. The extremity of this method causes it to generate bloody milk. Bloody milk takes longer to process because of the separation technique.”
- Stay confident and authoritative. You want your readers to be to trust that you know what you are talking about and allow themselves to believe in you. When you write in the third person, you come off as non-involved but rather informative. Write your business essays with as much authority as you can.
To avoid confusing your audience, stick to whatever point of view you choose to go with. If it’s limited then you should know as much as your readers know, if it is omniscient then you know everything and will let the reader in gradually, and if it is objective, you are just stating facts and trying to stay objective in whatever the busses essay is one.
In a business email, letters, memos, and most formal documents, the first-person voice is the one that is usually used. Which is why is a bold choice to write your business documents in the third person. One major advantage especially when it’s a sensitive topic is that you avoid sounding accusatory. “The staff did not meet the annual target goal” sounds less accusing than “You did not meet the annual target goal”.
More Tips When Writing In Third Person
“The virtual reality real estate app is looking for business opportunities in the Sunny Houses Company. Our main goal is to get the best we from these services”.
In this sentence, it is written in both the third and first-person. The reader may have trouble understanding if “these” is referring to the services offered by the virtual reality real estate app or the Sunny Houses. Make everything you write simple and straight forward so they don’t have to reread to understand what you meant.
The third-person narrative is available in newsletters and takes an authoritative and objective tune. When you write in the third person you appear more distant especially when you are writing about negative turnouts in the office. It does not appear as if you are accusing the reader.
Stick with business words to give it a professional tune and avoid changing verbs into nouns like saying “Noun changing phrases”; or changing nouns into verbs. Get rid of words that are not necessary and make your sentence short. The sentences should not be more than 20 words.
Conclusion
Knowing how to write in the third person comes in pretty handy especially when it comes to business. The most formal form of writing is in the third person and the business encourages formal tune. The major advantage of writing in the third person is how much flexibility and objectivity it provides. Third-person pronouns are its, hers, their, they, she, he, etc.
