A striking consistency is that the first books (Nephi, Jacob, Enos,
Jarom, Omni) and Mormon and Moroni are all in 1st person (I/me) while
the books of Mosiah, Alma, Helaman, Third and Fourth Nephi, and ether are all
in 3rd person (he/him). A fabricator would not have thought to be so
careful. So Mormon writes: “king Benjamin had continual peace . . . “ (Mosiah
1:1); “in the first year of the reign of Alma . . .” (Alma 1:2); “And it came
to pass that Helaman . . . “ (Helaman 2:2); “Nephi, the son of Helaman . . .
departed out of the land . . . “ (3 Nephi 1:2-3); etc. At times Mormon includes
1st person quotes from those records he abridges, but those book are
generally in 3rd person. However, Mormon put the small plates with his
abridgement, so Joseph Smith translates directly from the original authors of
the small plates: “I, Nephi, having . . .” (1 Nephi 1:1); “Nephi gave me, Jacob
. . . “ (Jacob 1;1); “I, Enos, knowing my father to be a just man . . .” (Enos
1:1); “I, Jarom, write a few words . . .” (Jarom 1:1); etc. Then, as mentioned above,
Mosiah to 3 Nephi are in 3rd person, until Mormon’s own book, where
the narrative switches back to 1st person: “And now I, Mormon, make
a record . . .” (Mormon 1:1). For a fabricator to keep all that straight would
be highly unlikely. (Brian D. Stubbs, Changes in Languages from Nephi to Now
[2d ed.; N.P.: Brian D. Stubbs, 2020], 17-18)