classification essay + perspective

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Meli312  #135007  Thu, 08 Sep 05 06:49 AM

I am an adult student that just recently returned to school. I am taking english 101. We are evaluated every week and given feedback on what to improve. In my last evaluation I was told "As the writing becomes more formal in weeks 3-6, I want you to work on eliminating first person POV and really writing in concrete and active prose." When I recieved this evaluation my roughdraft for this week was already done. The final draft is due today. I wrote this essay in 1st person POV too. It is a classification essay on the different types of callers that call a technical support line. I have been trying to change it to 3rd person but I just keep deleting what I wrote because it just is not working. What perspective is a classification essay normally written in? Any tips on how to stop from writing in 1st person would be appreciated.

Melissa

  
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Mister Micawber  #135147  Thu, 08 Sep 05 02:25 PM

Are you writing the whole piece with 'I' as the subject, or are you merely including a lot of 'I think', 'in my opinion', etc?

If it is the latter case, the easiest route is simply to delete those comment phrases.  Much stronger writing is produced by saying Roses are bad for your health instead of I think that roses are bad for your health.

If it is the former case, you have the options of casting in another person-- usually we, people (they) or one-- or converting much of the text to passive voice, a form used extensively in some genres of formal writing.

Give us an excerpted paragraph of particular difficulty for you, and let us see what is possible.



  
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Meli312  #136207  Sun, 11 Sep 05 08:26 AM

Well I actually recieved your message to late. But, I am actually working on a new roughdraft tonight for a comparsion/ contrast essay. I was doing more of the "I" still. I have pretty much broken myself of the "I think" habit. Thank you very much for the help though Smile [:)]

Melissa

  
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