Picking Up Pronouns

• That narrator's use of pronouns typically reveals the story's point of view. Instruct your students to search for examples of the pronouns "I" or "me." If these pronouns appear only within character dialogue -- inside quotation marks -- they make no difference to the point of view. If these pronouns appear outside of character dialogue, however, the story likely uses a first person point of view. Likewise, if the narrator uses the pronoun "you" outside of character dialogue, the author uses a second person point of view. If the only pronouns that exist outside of character dialogue are "he," "she" and "they," the story has a third person point of view.
  
  

Protagonist Perspectives

• Instruct students to imagine themselves as the protagonist, or principal character, of the story. Ask them to consider whether they would know all the information they presently know as a reader if they were the protagonist. Also ask if they might know more information as the protagonist than they know as the reader. If the first answer is no and the second is yes, the story likely has a first person point of view, since the narrator often acts as a separate character within the plot and knows separate information from the protagonist. If the answer to the first question is yes, but the answer to the second is no, the story likely has a third person point of view, since the protagonist and reader have access to the same information.
  
  

Evaluating Trustworthiness

• Instruct students to search for any inconsistent or uninformed details provided by the narrator. Inconsistent details suggest a narrator who lies and does not keep his story straight. Uninformed details suggest a narrator who has a naive view of his world. If the narrator appears to give poor details in an effort to make himself look better, the story likely has a first person point of view with an unreliable narrator. If these details skew the story in favor of another character, the story likely has a subjective third person limited point of view.
  
  

Swapping Point of View

• Imagining the story from the perspective of another character often helps define the point of view currently employed by the author. Ask students to summarize the story, in writing or out loud, from the perspective of a character other than the narrator or protagonist. If that character's point of view drastically changes the tone of the story, the story likely uses a first person, second person or third person limited point of view. If that character's point of view adds little to the existing story, the story likely has a third person omniscient point of view.