h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Given the number of PR entries which fail it, could

13. Write in the third person

be added?

That's a good suggestion. An explanation of why third person narratives are preferred may be helpful to new contributors.

JTG

So the trick is to not be the 3rd person to enter this conversation?
That's OK you 2, carry on as if I weren't here.

I tried to watch two or more people without interfering or asking questions, but I couldn't figure out who 'Bev' was, why the car was so important to Tad or why the waterbed was going to cold that night. Writing in the third person sucks.

Sharing a bed (or a car) with Bev or Tad is much more interesting in the third person, because you can change position without disturbing either of them. You can be in, on, or under the bed, the car, or anything... and zip home in a flash to let the cat out. You can still be you in the third person... only with god-like powers of perception. How cool is that!

JTG

There now, we have a fourth person and a fifth person. But the fifth was also the second. (Hi john I'm john.) Anyway I was third person and I guess that pretty well answers the question. Unless the first person is still writing in the first person.
- wanders off whistling the theme from The Third Man -

I always write in the first person. Mainly because when he/she writes in the third person, he/she has issues with his/her gender...

Sorry, I'm new here (I was the third person remember) and I have to ask what a "PR entry" is.
- wanders off humming Three Blind Mice while whistling the Third Man Theme -

PR = Peer Review

http://www.h2g2.com/peerreview

Entry = guide entry.

PR Entry = Entry submitted to PR.

Thank you. Found the sin bin. My kind of people.
- wanders off to BOF INN caroling "we three kings of orient tar..." -

What if you want to write in the second person?

**Wanders off singing '2 out of 3 aint bad'**

{second person = "you" and suchlike}. It's ok to use words like "you", provided it's clear that you're using "you" like you would use "one" if you were absurdly posh. Otherwise there is a danger that people feel the entry is targeted against them.

Example: "you won't want to enter the King's Arms pub" - makes people irritated, because the entry is trying to tell them what to do and what not to do. Better would be "most people won't want to enter the King's Arms pub" or "nobody who has been in the King's Arms pub wants to reenter".

On the other hand, "to play a trumpet, first you put it to your mouth, then you blow it, while wiggling your fingers" is fine, and much better than "to play a trumpet, first one should put it to one's mouth, then one should blow it, while wiggling one's fingers".

Help any?

Believe it or not I was actually being silly

However your response was helpful, as I wasn't sure when one would actually use the second person. Maybe my subconscious figured this was a way to help me find out

Gee, I was wondering if those persons who wanted to write in the third person ever got their gender issues sorted. I mean 'there' is a third person plural - why can't the English use it? What's all this he/she/it crap? Don't they know when they are being grammatically ridiculous for the sake of misguided PC correctness over gender bias.
One ought to be aware of these things shouldn't they!

well, they is plural, like you say, and sometimes you need to use he/she to make it clear you're refering to the singular... but it is irritating. I've started to use hir for his/her, myself, which helps somewhat...

While 'hir' is creative 'their' is correct.
For example: "When a person buys their ticket, they are shown to their seat by an usher. With their ticket stub, they may exit and the ticket taker will allow them back in, after inspecting their stub, and they may then return to their seat."
An unlikley construction perhaps, conceived only to demonstrate the usage. It is established we are talking about one person of indeterminate gender and the use of 'they' or 'their' or 'them' is much happier than 'one' or one's.
I am trying to think of an example where it might not be established that the subject, object or possessor is singular, and the use of 'one' might be more appropriate for clarity, but as I usually avoid it, I will need help imagining such a situation.

Yah, er...

One thing wasn't covered in the 2nd Person section - can you write as if you are talking to the reader? I'm writing a "Beginners Guide to Philosophy" at the moment, and I keep trying to talk to someone!

Speaking of which, how long does an entry stay in PR for? When its gone, can you put it in again? See, That Philosophy one was removed after a while, but no-one seemed interested to comment. (Bar one person, who I am thankful too)

Yes, you can write to the reader: for example, there is currently an entry called "So, you want to write a play!". Again, I'd say be careful - if you say things like:

"you're probably wondering why on earth anyone would believe that"

then you'll lose the 50% of your audience who are wondering whether they remembered to set the video recorder. Well, silly example, but you get the message. {or do you? See how easy it is?}

It varies from entry to entry - sometimes it works well, occasionally it grates horribly. In practice it's not something to worry about - just write it how you like, and if people find it grates, they'll tell you!
--

re: are you sure it was removed? Remember, there are several pages of threads in peer review, it's possible that yours has fallen down the list, and is now on the second or third (or more) page...

Ta. Thanks

No.
Thank YOU.