Changing essay viewpoints

Viewpoint can mean at least two different things. First, it can mean how you look at something from a physical location. For example, if you stand on top of a high hill, you can see long distances all around you. On the other hand, if you are in a small elevator with other people, your view is limited to close-ups of heads and shoulders and the four walls of the elevator. You probably cannot see the entire elevator at once.

The second kind of viewpoint refers to the way you think about something and understand it. You can discover many things to say about a subject by asking these three viewpoint questions:

•  What is the subject like as itself?

•  What is the subject like as part of a larger group of similar subjects?

•  How does the subject change?

Viewpoint 1 — What Is It Like?

If you think about a subject as itself, you describe and define it. If you were examining a river, for example, you could view it as itself, different from other rivers, with features that no other river has. Perhaps it is long, deep, freshwater, winding, flowing from north to south, perhaps filled with catfish. Maybe it has a deep blue-green color or is gray and muddy. Perhaps its banks are shallow and often overflowing. If you think about the river as itself, you describe how it looks, how it acts, where it is located, how deep or long it is, and so on.

Viewpoint 2 — How Does It Fit In?

If you think about a subject as part of a larger group of similar subjects, you compare it with other subjects in the group or show how it fits into a larger system. The river, for example, can be described as part of a larger system of rivers in a region or country. It belongs to a group called “waterways” or “large, flowing bodies of water.” It is like other rivers because, like them, it flows, contains billions of cubic feet of water, has a source, and empties into a larger body of water such as an ocean. Also, the river can be considered part of a transportation system, since it moves boats up and down from port to port.

 Viewpoint 3 — How Does It Change?

If you think about a subject as a changing thing, you show how it grows, decays, or changes through time or space. Because a river is not “frozen” in time or space, it is forever changing. In one season it may be slow and sluggish; in another, fast-moving and dangerous. Its color changes as it picks up soil or rubbish from boats. It even means different things to people: a good place to fish for those who like to fish, a “road” over which a ship’s captain can move cargo, or a research laboratory for the scientist.