• Best of luck to the class of 2024 for their HSC exams. You got this!
    Let us know your thoughts on the HSC exams here
  • YOU can help the next generation of students in the community!
    Share your trial papers and notes on our Notes & Resources page
MedVision ad

Do you use first person? (1 Viewer)

eloxquence

Member
Joined
May 10, 2008
Messages
43
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
Because it asks for 'your' opinion and how 'your' opinion has been shaped, do you use 'I'. Or just third person like any other essay?

What about reflection statements? We had to do them in our trial exam and I consistantly used 'I'. I got 16/20..not great by all means..but I'm sure if I wasnt supposed to use first person then I would've got worse marks.

Please help?
 

clintmyster

Prophet 9 FTW
Joined
Nov 12, 2007
Messages
1,067
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
Uni Grad
2015
If its a poetry essay then I know you should definitely say I believe this and my oppinion has been shaped by this critic blah blah. Perhaps your personal response was good but your desconstruction let you down?
 

mirakon

nigga
Joined
Sep 18, 2009
Messages
4,221
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
I've always been told using first person in an essay situation was bad however......:confused:
 

kwabon

Banned
Joined
May 26, 2008
Messages
646
Location
right behind you, mate
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
Because it asks for 'your' opinion and how 'your' opinion has been shaped, do you use 'I'. Or just third person like any other essay?

What about reflection statements? We had to do them in our trial exam and I consistantly used 'I'. I got 16/20..not great by all means..but I'm sure if I wasnt supposed to use first person then I would've got worse marks.

Please help?
yes, you were right using first person in your response.
totally agree with clintmyster, your structure and justification probably werent good.

and 16/20 is a better mark than you think.
 

clintmyster

Prophet 9 FTW
Joined
Nov 12, 2007
Messages
1,067
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
Uni Grad
2015
and 16/20 is a better mark than you think.
oh yeah to add to that, I got 14/20 for my mod b essay purely because I accidently answered the wrong question which was supposedly much easier than the required question so thats what let me down by at least 3 marks. When you go back to school for your belonging paper, why don't you ask your teachers what went wrong?
 

eloxquence

Member
Joined
May 10, 2008
Messages
43
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
Thank you :)


Yeah I would ask...but I know that I just winged that response anyway..hardly studied because I didnt understand the topic whatsoever so that accounts for my poor marks.
 
Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
86
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
Your supposed to use "I" and "me" for module B.
I'm sorry? Your what? Ah-h-h I'm sorry please don't neg-rep me :(. Back on topic: while I believe it's perfectly sensible and OK to use "I" and "me" in pretty much any essay that we're doing in Advanced English, unless you're really confident it's probably a good idea to not use it.

The main drawback of using "I" is repetition; as with short stories, an inexperienced writer will have trouble avoiding sentences that begin with "I" and it really just sounds horrible and childish -- even if you were making wonderful points.

I've also been told that while the essay IS looking for opinions, using "I" may tempt you to present opinions without supporting evidence. Using the third person makes what you say appear to be solid facts, and so it becomes awkward to write something in the third person unless you support it.

If you can keep it to a low and make sure you sufficiently support your arguments, however, the use of "I" allows a far clearer communication of your opinions.
 

kaz1

et tu
Joined
Mar 6, 2007
Messages
6,960
Location
Vespucci Beach
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2009
Uni Grad
2018
I'm sorry? Your what? Ah-h-h I'm sorry please don't neg-rep me :(. Back on topic: while I believe it's perfectly sensible and OK to use "I" and "me" in pretty much any essay that we're doing in Advanced English, unless you're really confident it's probably a good idea to not use it.

The main drawback of using "I" is repetition; as with short stories, an inexperienced writer will have trouble avoiding sentences that begin with "I" and it really just sounds horrible and childish -- even if you were making wonderful points.

I've also been told that while the essay IS looking for opinions, using "I" may tempt you to present opinions without supporting evidence. Using the third person makes what you say appear to be solid facts, and so it becomes awkward to write something in the third person unless you support it.

If you can keep it to a low and make sure you sufficiently support your arguments, however, the use of "I" allows a far clearer communication of your opinions.
I said you should use personal pronouns like "I" and "me" in module B because they usually give questions like "What is your perspective on the interaction of characters in Hamlet". Putting personal pronouns imo answers the question more.

eg Ophelia is one of the most romantic heroines, this is because she represents the values for Elizabethan women.
can be changed to
In my opinion Ophelia is one of the most romantic heroines as I consider her to be a character that upholds the epitomy of values for Elizabethan women.

Why would I neg rep you? lol
 
Last edited:

Aerath

Retired
Joined
May 10, 2007
Messages
10,169
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
I said you should use personal pronouns like "I" and "me" in module B because they usually give questions like "What is your perspective on the interaction of characters in Hamlet". Putting personal pronouns imo answers the question more.
Yeah, unfortunately they don't always give questions like that. :p
 

youngminii

Banned
Joined
Feb 13, 2008
Messages
2,083
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
Youngminii always uses first person.
He thinks it's easier to answer questions with (just his writing style)
Also, it makes it easier for him to personalise his essays especially for creative where youngminii has trouble emphasising the notion of belonging.
 
Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
86
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
Why would I neg rep you? lol
I was referring to your homophone/grammar issue with "your/you're" at the beginning of your post. Now I feel like a douchebag for bothering to point it out.

As Aerath rightly said, they don't always give questions like that, and so you're probably better off sticking with third person rather than being in the habit of using first person and accidentally using it in an essay that doesn't ask for "your" perspective.
 

bell531

Member's Member 2008
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
451
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
If they ask for a personal response, you should be using "I"
 

MzBiiBii

Member
Joined
Jan 12, 2008
Messages
180
Location
Syd
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
I'm sorry? Your what? Ah-h-h I'm sorry please don't neg-rep me :(. Back on topic: while I believe it's perfectly sensible and OK to use "I" and "me" in pretty much any essay that we're doing in Advanced English, unless you're really confident it's probably a good idea to not use it.

The main drawback of using "I" is repetition; as with short stories, an inexperienced writer will have trouble avoiding sentences that begin with "I" and it really just sounds horrible and childish -- even if you were making wonderful points.

I've also been told that while the essay IS looking for opinions, using "I" may tempt you to present opinions without supporting evidence. Using the third person makes what you say appear to be solid facts, and so it becomes awkward to write something in the third person unless you support it.

If you can keep it to a low and make sure you sufficiently support your arguments, however, the use of "I" allows a far clearer communication of your opinions.

In our trials for hamlet, it was asking for our personal response. I wrote "one's personal response" blabla - 3rd person

And we got it marked outside of school by HSC marker, and all over my page was;

"where's your response?"

So I'm not going to risk it again... :)
 
Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
86
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
In our trials for hamlet, it was asking for our personal response. I wrote "one's personal response" blabla - 3rd person

And we got it marked outside of school by HSC marker, and all over my page was;

"where's your response?"

So I'm not going to risk it again... :)
Can't argue with that. I hereby retract any misinformed comments I have previously made. If it asks for "your personal response", then it seems they expect a first person response. Otherwise, I still believe the choice can be made at the writer's discretion unless there's some sort of phrase to indicate that a subjective or objective response is required.
 

jackc91

rumpleshit
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
98
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
Youngminii always uses first person.
He thinks it's easier to answer questions with (just his writing style)
Also, it makes it easier for him to personalise his essays especially for creative where youngminii has trouble emphasising the notion of belonging.
Hahaha rep'd

Edit: If you weren't banned
 

Shenannigoats

New Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2009
Messages
7
Location
Shellharbour, NSW
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
We were told by our teacher that first person can be used, but not to go overboard with it.

So, yeah. "I", "my", etc. should be fine, just use them sparingly.

Good luck~
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top