Note 253 – Four types of third-person point of view (POV) in writing

My Writing Notebook

When a work colleague asked me if I had blogged about the difference between third person closed and third person unlimited (omniscient), I wasn’t really sure what he was talking about.  My first reaction was to look up the word omniscient itself which I now know means “all knowing”.  This inspired me to write Note 251 The prefix omni and related words a couple of days ago. 

Since then a few other writers have left some very useful comments on this post which helped me put the phrase ‘omniscient point of view (POV)’ into context.  I’ve also googled it and About.com Grammar & Composition says that there are three main types of third-person points of view which are omniscient, closed and objective as described below; however Wikipedia also mentions subjective so I’ve added that as well:

1. Third person omniscient (or unlimited) – About.com explains that “an all-knowing narrator not only reports the facts but may also interpret events and relate the thoughts…

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