Every text has a point of view

Word	What it means
Narrator	The voice telling a story — a character the author created, not the author.
Point of view	Who tells a story, and so how much the reader is allowed to know.
First person	Told by a character in the story, using I, who knows only their own thoughts.
Third-person limited	Told by an outside voice using he, she or they, following one character's thoughts.
Third-person omniscient	Told by an outside voice that can report any character's thoughts and any event.
Media text	Anything made to reach an audience through a medium: an ad, a video, a poster, a podcast, a website.
Target audience	The group a text is made for.
Camera angle	Where the camera looks from. Low (looking up) tends to make someone look powerful; high (looking down), small or alone; eye level, an equal.
Framing	What a shot includes. A close-up fills the screen with a face or an object, to show emotion or a detail; a long shot shows a whole figure and its surroundings.
Claim	The position an argument wants you to accept.
Reason / evidence	Why the claim should be accepted / the facts, numbers or examples behind a reason.
Counter-argument	A point for the other side, which a strong argument answers.

First person: I read the list twice. My name was on it; Rosa's wasn't. She said, “Congratulations,” and smiled, so I figured she was fine with it.

Third-person omniscient: Kai read the list twice. His name was on it; Rosa's wasn't. She said, “Congratulations,” and held her smile all the way to the bus, where she cried until her stop.

A model reading. Kai cannot see into Rosa's head or ride her bus, so I figured she was fine is only his guess — and a careful reader may suspect he is wrong, because a smile is also what people wear when they do not want to talk. The omniscient narrator shows the truth, and the scene becomes about the gap between what Rosa shows and what she feels.

Why a writer chooses each. First person puts you inside one character, with their voice and their blind spots: I figured she was fine tells you Kai does not look very hard. Third person can step back, follow more than one character, and show what happens when the main character is not there.

A 20-second video ad for a made-up brand of hiking boots, shot by shot:

Shot	What you see and hear	Technique	What it does
1	A hiker on a ridge against the sky, seen from below. Slow drums.	Low angle; music	She looks strong, even heroic, and the drums build expectation.
2	Boots gripping wet rock, filling the screen. The crunch of gravel.	Close-up; sound	The boots are all there is to look at, and you can hear the grip.
3	A tiny figure on a huge mountainside. The music swells.	Long shot	The mountain shows how big the challenge is, and the achievement.
4	Black screen, white words: Go further. The logo. Silence.	Word choice	Two words and no facts. The silence makes them land.

A model reading. The ad never says the boots are waterproof, comfortable or worth the price. It sells a feeling — being the kind of person who stands on ridges — and lets you attach it to the boots. The target audience is people who see themselves as adventurous, or would like to. What it leaves out is every fact you would need to decide.

Turn the camera around. Film the same hiker from above, small on a bare slope, with no music, and the ad would be about how alone and exposed she is. The mountain did not change; the choices did.

The town should keep the lights at the outdoor rink on until 10 p.m. Right now they switch off at 8, which is exactly when most high school students finish homework and practice. Last February, a group of us counted: on weeknights between 8 and 10, at least a dozen people were skating in the dark by the light from the parking lot. That is not just inconvenient; it is how someone gets hurt. Some councillors say two more hours of power would cost too much, but the rink already uses LED lights, and the cost would be tiny next to one serious injury. Turning off the lights at 8 does not send kids home. It sends them onto dark ice.

Part	In the letter	How strong?
Claim	Keep the rink lights on until 10 p.m.	Clear and specific
Reasons	8 p.m. is when students are free; skating in the dark is dangerous	Reasonable, and the second follows from the evidence
Evidence	A dozen or more skating in the dark on weeknights	Strong: a count anyone could repeat
Counter-argument	The power costs too much	Stated fairly
Answer to it	LED lights; cheaper than an injury	Weakest part: no numbers for either cost

A model reading. Laid out this way, the argument shows where it is strong (the count) and where it asks you to take its word (the cost). It also shows the writer's point of view: the writer is one of the skaters. That does not make the argument wrong, but the councillors paying the bill might weigh the cost differently.

• Letting a first-person narrator know what other characters think. They can only guess.
• Calling a narrator omniscient because it says he or she. Check whose thoughts it shows.
• Describing what an ad shows without saying what it makes you feel or want.
• Missing what an ad or an argument leaves out.
• Treating a reason as proven because it sounds confident. Look for the evidence.