Shift in Person
Here again, the goal is to be clear and consistent. This time, however, the aim is to establish a steady, reliable point of view. Doing so helps the reader understand where the two of you stand in relation to the subject, and generally helps build a strong writer/reader relationship. Change: Helga is my best friend. She won't let a person down. You can always count on her to be there when you need help. to: Helga is my best friend. She won't let me down. I can always count on her to be there when I need help. ... the aim is to establish a steady, reliable point of view. The writer is probably talking about her own relationship with Helga, not the reader's. Keeping point of view consistent in all three sentences makes that clear. For our purposes, the main points of view from which to choose correspond to the persons on the Person/Number Chart . Thus, writing based on the first person singular point of view uses "I" and "me" as its foundation, while writ...