Point of View

The narrator can tell us the thoughts and feelings of all the characters in a story

• Third Person Objective POV

• Third Person Omniscient POV

• Third Person Limited POV

The narrator reports the facts and is a neutral and impersonal outside observer

• Third Person Omniscient POV

• Third Person Limited POV

• Third Person Objective POV

What is the POV? "The library was full of students studying for their final exams. Robert and Rome were studying for math. William and Tiana were studying for science."

• Third Person Limited POV

• Third Person Omniscient POV

• Third Person Objective POV

• Second Person POV

What is the POV? "You know you have to get to class on time, but you decide to stop off at the vending machine for some Hot Cheetos. You can’t help it! You love Hot Cheetos but now you have a pink slip for being late to class."

• First Person POV

• Second Person POV

• Third Person Limited POV

• Third Person Objective POV

What is the POV? "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go."       —From "Oh, the Places You’ll Go!" by Dr. Seuss

• Third Person POV

• First Person POV

• Second Person POV

• Third Person Objective POV

What is the POV? "Mia and Destiny climbed onto the bus, excited for the game. Destiny was feeling confident after the last game, while Mia hoped all her practice would pay off."

• Third Person Limited POV

• Third Person Omniscient POV

• Third Person Objective POV

What is the POV? "He knows that he is a great football player. He is proud to have scored the most touchdowns this season."

• Third Person Limited POV

• Third Person Objective POV

• Third Person Omniscient POV

What is the POV? "I always look forward to my summer vacation at the beach. I like to collect seashells and swim in the ocean."

• First Person POV

• Second Person POV

• Third Person Limited POV

• Third Person Omniscient POV

Which sentence is written in second person point of view?

• Erin did not want to go to the grocery store.
  

• You did not want to go to the grocery store.
  

• Mariah did not want to go to the grocery store.
  

• I did not want to go to the grocery store.
  

When a writer begins a new story, she must decide who will tell the story. Point of view is who tells the story, or the “voice” that the story is told in. It's the place from which a narrator sees and understands what is happening.
Read the following passage.“We’re going to put on a play, Miriam!” Zakir announced, waving his hands in my face. I immediately began to think of what part I’d like to play. I thought at first I’d like to play a witch or a goblin—I’d been working for weeks on an eerie, low-sounding screech that I was sure would steal the show. But I knew Zakir was secretly afraid of things like that—he’d never agree to a play about the occult. And, I remembered, the only audience for the play was our father, and he would quietly reprimand me for being insensitive to my brother’s phobias. I could already hear his gentle scolding. "Don't tease him, Miriam," he would say. I thought of playing a queen, but maybe there wouldn’t be enough to do with that part. Our little sister, Dinah, would probably insist on wearing the house’s toy crown, too. I looked around our living room, spying a pair of green tights doubled down between the couch cushions. A wrestler? Maybe.
What point of view is this passage written in?

• third person limited
  

• third person omniscient
  

• second person
  

• first person