First-Person Checker
Paste an essay, report or paper and the checker highlights every first-person pronoun in yellow and every second-person pronoun in blue, counts each one, and gives the number of pronouns per 100 words. It tells you where the pronouns are, not whether they are wrong — that depends on your style guide and audience. Free, no sign-up, and your text stays in your browser.
Should you avoid first person?
It depends on your style guide, not on a blanket rule. Many fields now allow or encourage first person — APA 7 explicitly recommends using "I" for single-author papers rather than "the author". Other disciplines, journals, and instructors still expect third person. Second person ("you", "your") is different: most academic prose avoids addressing the reader directly regardless of field. Check what your target venue expects, then decide each highlighted occurrence deliberately.
How to Use the First-Person Checker
- Paste your text. Results appear as you type, and the text never leaves your browser.
- Read the four numbers. Total words, first-person pronouns, second-person pronouns, and all pronouns per 100 words.
- Look at the colours. Yellow marks first person (I, we, my, our, me, us, myself); blue marks second person (you, your, yours, yourself).
- Decide each one. Check what your assignment, journal or style guide expects. Keep the pronouns you want and rewrite the rest.
What It Looks For
| Colour | Pronouns |
|---|---|
| First person (yellow) | I, me, my, mine, myself, we, us, our, ours, ourselves, and I’m, I’ve, I’ll, I’d, we’re, we’ve, we’ll |
| Second person (blue) | you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves, you’re |
Matching ignores capitals (except for all-caps US and ME) and accepts straight or curly apostrophes. Other contractions are counted as the bare pronoun: we’d counts as we, you’ll and you’ve as you. Third-person pronouns (he, she, they, it) are not marked.
Is First Person Allowed?
There is no universal ban. APA Style (7th edition) asks authors to use I for a single author and we for several, and says not to refer to yourself as “the author” or “the researcher” when you mean yourself. No major citation style forbids first person outright. The limits come from disciplines, journals and instructors: a lab report or a methods section in the natural sciences often avoids it, a reflective essay or humanities argument often welcomes it. Second person is a different matter. Addressing the reader as you is rare in scholarly prose, so most pronoun rewrites are aimed at blue highlights.
If your assignment says “third person”, ask whether it means no I at all or only no you. Then rewrite the highlighted sentences, using whichever approach keeps your meaning:
| First person | Option | Rewrite |
|---|---|---|
| I argue that the policy failed. | Let the work be the subject | This paper argues that the policy failed. |
| We measured blood pressure twice. | Use the passive where the actor is unimportant | Blood pressure was measured twice. |
| I think the effect is small. | State the claim directly | The effect appears small. |
| In my opinion, the sample is biased. | Name the evidence | The sample over-represents students (68%). |
| You can see the trend in Figure 2. | Address the figure, not the reader | Figure 2 shows the trend. |
Be careful with the passive: used for every sentence it hides who did what. The Passive Voice Detector will show how many sentences it has produced. And “the author” or “the researcher” is rarely a good substitute, because APA discourages it for your own actions.
What the Checker Gets Wrong
- Look-alikes. Us and me are matched only when they are not all capitals, so US (the country) and ME (Maine) are skipped, while a sentence-initial Us or Me still counts. A lone capital I in a list or as a roman numeral is counted as the pronoun, and text typed entirely in capitals is not checked for us and me.
- Quotations. A pronoun inside a quotation is highlighted like any other; leave quoted words as written.
- Collective and generic uses. We meaning “people in general” and you meaning “anyone” are counted, even when they are not about you. They are worth a look anyway, since they are vague.
- Missing contractions. We’d, you’ll and you’ve count as the bare pronoun, not as separate contractions.
Worked Example
The paragraph below has 23 words and five highlights — three first person and two second person — for 21.7 pronouns per 100 words. The country abbreviation US is not highlighted:
Text
In this study, we examined how our participants rated the US economy. I believe you can see the pattern in your own data.
First person (3)
we, our, I
Second person (2)
you, your
Third-person version (17 words, 0 highlights)
This study examined how participants rated the economy. The author believes the pattern appears in the data.
The rewrite scores 0.0. It also swaps in “the author”, which APA discourages for your own actions, so the version for an APA paper would be We believe the pattern appears in the data — or simply The pattern appears in the data.
Which Tool Do You Need?
| The problem is… | Use |
|---|---|
| Pronouns — I, we, my, you | This First-Person Checker |
| Contractions that make the draft sound informal | Contraction Expander |
| Casual words, phrasal verbs, exclamation marks and questions | Formal Writing Checker |
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does the first-person checker find?
- Every first-person pronoun (I, me, my, mine, myself, we, us, our, ours, ourselves and the contractions I’m, I’ve, I’ll, I’d, we’re, we’ve, we’ll) and every second-person pronoun (you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves, you’re), with a count for each and a density per 100 words.
- Is first person banned in academic writing?
- No. APA Style recommends I for single authors instead of “the author”, and many fields accept or encourage it. Some disciplines, journals and instructors still expect third person, so check your assignment or instructions for authors.
- Why are first and second person shown separately?
- They raise different questions. First person is about how you present your role in the work, and is increasingly accepted. Second person addresses the reader directly, which most academic prose avoids.
- What is a good first-person density?
- There is no target. A reflective essay may use first person in nearly every sentence; a lab report may use none. The figure shows scale — use it to compare drafts, not as a score to drive to zero.
- Does it flag “US” or “ME”?
- No. It ignores US and ME when written in all capitals, so the country and the state are not counted. A sentence-initial Us or Me is still counted as a pronoun, and a heading typed entirely in capitals will not have its us and me highlighted.
- How do I rewrite a sentence without first person?
- Make the paper, the data or the method the subject (This paper argues…, Figure 2 shows…), state the claim directly, or use the passive where the doer does not matter. Avoid replacing every I with “the author”.
- Is my text uploaded?
- No. The check runs in your browser, and nothing is sent to a server.