Definition:
Use of the imperative mood and the pronouns you, your, and yours to address a reader or listener directly.
Though the second-person point of view only rarely serves as a narrative voice in fiction, it does appear in letters, speeches, and other forms of nonfiction, including many types of business writing and technical writing.
The second-person point of view is commonly used in step-by-step instructions--that is, in a directive process analysis that explains how to do or make something. Here are three examples:
- "Camping Out," by Ernest Hemingway
- How to Build a Sand Castle
- Student Essay: How to Catch River Crabs
See also:
- Second-Person Pronouns
- "Advice to Youth," by Mark Twain
- Didactic Writing
- Direct Address
- First-Person Point of You and Third-Person Point of View
- Imperative Sentence
- Person
- Point of View
- Voice (Rhetoric)
- What Is the "You Attitude"?
- "You!" by Robert Benchley
Examples and Observations:
- "The standard for writing instructions is the second-person singular pronoun, 'you.' While some old-fashioned manuals even avoid 'you' in favor of the passive voice or 'the user,' most contemporary documentation uses 'you' in combination with the imperative voice. . . .
"The imperative is the command form of the verb without the 'you' included ('Start your engines' not 'You start your engines'). Begin most procedural steps with an imperative, rather than a noun. Using imperatives when you list steps for users to perform makes the instructions easy to read and concise."
(K. R. Woolever, Writing for the Technical Professions. Pearson, 2005) - "The second-person pronoun (you) lets the author hook the reader as if in conversation. Call it cozy. Call it confiding. You is a favorite of the Plain English folks, who view it as an antidote to the stiff impersonality of legalese and urge bureaucrats to write as if speaking to the public."
(Constance Hale, Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose. Random House, 2001) - "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."
(Dr. Seuss, Oh! The Places You’ll Go! 1990) - "Put on your jeans and look in the mirror. With the pen, mark one leg an eyeballed two inches above the knee if you want Bermuda shorts, four inches above the knee for short shorts. Take off the jeans, lay them flat on a table, and cut off the leg even with the mark. Don't worry if your cutting is a little crooked. You can correct it later."
(Delia Ephron, "How to Cut Off Your Jeans." Esquire, June 1976) - "Like Close Encounters, E.T. is bathed in warmth, and it seems to clear all the bad thoughts out of your head. It reminds you of the goofiest dreams you had as a kid, and rehabilitates them. Spielberg is right there in his films; you can feel his presence and his love of surprises."
(Pauline Kael, review of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. The New Yorker, June 14, 1982) - "Careful not to let the 'you' character sound like an outtake from a Humphrey Bogart movie. The second person tone can easily slip into hard-boiled detective mode: 'You approach the door. You knock. You turn the knob. You hold your breath.' Vary your sentence constructions to avoid this pitfall."
(Monica Wood, Description. Writer's Digest, 1995) - Second-Person Point-of-View in Speeches
"[W]hen television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland."
(Newton N. Minow, "Television and the Public Interest." Speech to the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington, D.C., on May 9, 1961) - Second-Person Point-of-View in Ads
Here are some [ads] from the . . . New York Times:(1) You'll never read a book with greater interest. Earn 5% on your savings with our Golden Passbook Account.
Throughout all advertising, whether jocular or not, there is an effort to buttonhole the reader by uses of language that promote a close relation with the speaker. The most obvious device in this direction is simple enough: the second-person pronoun. Note in all our examples the repetition of 'you,' 'your,' as well as the direct appeal of the imperative voice ('break out,' 'keep'). In example 4 above, the stress on 'your' particular needs may be intended as especially flattering. In addition, observe those familiar devices of language that once again create the persona as an easy-going talker-fellow rather than as a writer-fellow. Contractions: 'you'll never read.' Colloquialisms: 'cutting up,' 'sassiest.' The list of short fragmented questions familiar in speech: 'a higher collar?' 'a quarter size collar'?"
(2) Amsterdam is a whole lot more than charming canals and historic houses. There, by the beautiful zee, you can watch diamonds being cut, and do some cutting up of your own in some of Europe's sassiest cabarets.
(3) Break out the frosty bottle, boys, and keep your collins dry!
(4) Do you know which collar style suits you best? For example, do you need a lower collar? a higher collar? a quarter size collar? Perhaps you want a tapered waistline, or even, an in-between sleeve length.
(Walker Gibson, Persona: A Style Study for Readers and Writers. Random House, 1969)
