第二人称观点使用祈使语气和代词you、your和yours直接向读者或听众讲话。虽然第二人称视角是小说叙事语态的一种罕见的文体选择，但它确实出现在信件、演讲和其他形式的非小说作品中，包括许多类型的商业和技术写作。

第二人称pov的理解与使用

《罪恶与句法》的作者康斯坦斯·黑尔（Constance Hale）就第二人称观点为何如此有效提出了以下想法：“第二人称代词（你）让作者像在对话中一样吸引读者。称之为舒适。称之为倾诉，”她写道。“你是普通英国人的最爱，他们认为这是对法律术语僵硬的非人格化的解药，并敦促官僚们像对公众讲话一样写作。”

然而，与第二人称的效果一样，也有一些值得考虑的注意事项，特别是当涉及到你的语气时。小说家兼《小说写作指南》作者莫妮卡·伍德（Monica Wood）警告说，作家们必须小心“不要让‘你’这个角色听起来像是汉弗莱·鲍嘉（Humphrey Bogart）电影中的外卖……第二人称角色很容易就进入了冷酷无情的侦探模式：‘你走近门。你敲门。你转动旋钮。你屏住呼吸。’”伍德说，避免这个陷阱的最好办法是“改变你的句子结构。”

广告与政治中的第二人称视角

广告是一种媒介，在这种媒介中，第二人称的观点经常被用作营销工具。广告商使用特定的语言来反映个人关系，而不是商业关系，试图激发消费者的虚荣、恐惧，甚至利他主义情绪，从而产生一种迫切的反应需求（如购买）。

广告文案撰写人通常依靠第二人称代词和祈使语气将信息传达给读者，并经常在措辞中添加缩略语和口语，使文案听起来像是以同龄人或同事的身份写的，而不是以潜在消费者为目标的人写的。以下是该策略的几个示例：

• “不管你做了什么，这巴德是给你的。”-百威
• “Betcha不能只吃一个。”-雷的薯片
• “因为你值得.-巴黎欧莱雅酒店

针对选民根深蒂固的信仰和同情以及他们的愤怒、偏见和挫败感，政治竞选活动转向第二人称来进行紧急言辞和反言辞并不是什么新鲜事。早在1888年，尤利西斯·S·格兰特的总统竞选口号是“边开枪边投票”

第二人称观点，示例一

"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."—From "Oh, the Places You’ll Go!" by Dr. Seuss

第二人称观点，示例二

"When you yourself put words on paper, remember that the most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not. Don’t you yourself like or dislike writers mainly for what they choose to show you or make you think about? Did you ever admire an empty-headed writer for his or her mastery of the language? No. So your own winning literary style must begin with interesting ideas in your head. Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about."—From "How to Write With Style" by Kurt Vonnegut

第二人称观点，示例三

"Consider what you could do with a chip in your ​head that linked directly to the Internet: Within milliseconds, you could retrieve just about any piece of information. And with the collective knowledge of the Web at your disposal, you could quickly fill in your brain’s normal memory gaps—no one would ever guess you slept through that economics seminar."—From "Brain Hacking" by Maria Konnikova in the Atlantic, June 2015 

第二人称观点，示例四

"You are a sculptor. You climb a great ladder; you pour grease all over a growing longleaf pine. Next, you build a hollow cylinder like a cofferdam around the entire pine, and grease its inside walls. You climb your ladder and spend the next week pouring wet plaster into the cofferdam, over and inside the pine. You wait; the plaster hardens. Now open the walls of the dam, split the plaster, saw down the tree, remove it, discard, and your intricate sculpture is ready: this is the shape of part of the air."—From "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard

来源

• 黑尔，康斯坦斯。《罪与句法：如何创作邪恶而有效的散文》，《兰登书屋》。2001
• 伍德，莫妮卡。“描述”，作者文摘。1995
• 吉布森，沃克。《人物角色：读者和作家的风格研究》，兰登书屋。1969