As I read “Find Your Style and Voice”, by Sister Molly Heine, it is understood that first person writing isn’t always encouraged because your writing should already have your style and voice. Which will connect the reader to you. As a writer grows, they being to master their style and voice. This would be the way they want to portray themselves in their writing. As a reader reads specific pieces from the same author, the reader can depict the way certain things are said or words that are pieced together that correlate to said author. It’s what separates authors from one another.
I remember being in eighth grade, and my teacher stressing about how we weren’t supposed to use the first person when writing about anything other than a personal essay. Yet, we were still supposed to make a connection, but we couldn’t use “I”. It never made any sense to me, because how was I supposed to write about a topic, and then make a connection to it, without making it obvious that I was making a connection?
Getting to high school, the repetition of not using first person became even worse. Now, in college, as I write this blog, it’s weird to read something and be encouraged to use first person when writing about it. Only because it was made out to be so informal. I believe that in all writing there should be a paragraph where it is encouraged to use first person. Yes, an author’s style and voice in writing should already showcase themselves, but “I”, makes it more personal.
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