Objective Writing: Professional Guidelines and Tips
March 30, 2021| Category: Writing Tips
It is natural for people to use rather subjective daily language. People do not bring evidence into their routine conversations; instead, they share their beliefs, personal opinions, views, or preferences. The foundation for individual opinions is most frequently made not by the verifiable information but by subjective evaluations and judgments. Talking about opinions, one can define them as individual beliefs that can be a subject of dispute, as they do not have sufficient proof. When it goes about the language of assignments completed for the studies rather than everyday chatting, the situation is totally different.
The language of academic writing has objectivity as its core characteristic. It is normal to have an individual perspective on a certain topic, but in academic papers it is crucial to back this opinion with referenced and properly cited evidence. If it is a university assignment, a writer has to do research, using the materials from textbooks, reference books, and peer-reviewed publications. Thus, an academic paper cannot be good without citations from the credible works of authorities in the field and knowledgeable scholars. Your paper can be objective only if the information you borrowed from other sources is factual. It is impossible to debate over facts as they are objective and clear. Facts are pieces of information represented in the form of measures, weights, numbers, statistics, or quantities.
Effective Strategies towards Objective Writing
It is crucial to ensure objectivity in writing, as it makes the foundation for the credibility, efficiency, and high evaluation of the paper. An objective paper has a strong argument. The writer emphasizes it through proper construction of the text, formal language with proper grammar structures and vocabulary, and profound research. In addition, objective writing does not touch upon any personal prejudice or feelings. There are peculiar strategies that will help writers both sound objective in writing and present their perspective on the problem.
Mobilization in the Text Structure
Its aim is to lay emphasis on the ideas and facts, not emotions or feelings of an individual. The audience, purpose of the paper, and context of writing will determine whether it is appropriate to use the first-person pronouns (such as my, our, me, us, I, we, us, etc.). First-person pronouns facilitate the creation of ties between the writer and the reader. They show the writer’s involvement and passionate attitude to the subject. In certain cases, it is fine to incorporate some facts from your personal experience if the latter belongs to the corresponding research and is relevant to the subject. Still, typically, it is normal to refer to some anecdotes from the past only if personal experience promotes idea development. Nevertheless, it is always right to double-check the instructions from the professor. Usually, they have a clear indication about the use of personal pronouns in this or that paper. For instance, a statement “In my opinion, the validity of the model rests on the obtained findings” sounds too subjective. On the contrary, “The section will demonstrate the role of findings in the model validation” is a much better objective version.
No Colloquial Words
Writers have to use clear vocabulary and specific terms from a particular discipline. Otherwise, the professor will point out some of the vocabulary as outdated and unreliable.
No Emotional Language
Personal opinions and judgments require judgmental language from writers. Thus, readers may believe that the researcher made conclusions on the previous ideas, beliefs, and assumptions, not the literature review done for this particular paper. It is crucial for the writer to note that beliefs tend to change and can be disproved later. It is not easy to cope with academic writing tasks as writers have to be cautious with what they say. For example, the sentence “It is obvious that the smoking parents abuse their children” is not a bright one. Instead, it is better to present the idea this way, “Children’s health can be affected by second-hand smoke.”
Giving Room for Arguments
The paper should not sound as if it contains the final arguments. The sentence “I am strongly against second-hand smoking as the threat of cancer it causes is serious” does not sound brilliant. Instead, there is a much better option, “The idea that one of the consequences of second-hand smoke is a high risk of cancer has got serious supportive evidence.” Exaggerations and superlative forms of adjectives are characteristic features of emotive language, which appeal to the readers’ values and likes. Writers use emotive language to get the readers’ emotional reactions. It is a persuasive type of language, but it is far from academics, as it does not need any evidence from literature.
Using Only Authoritative Credible Sources
Writers can cite only those researchers whose work is relevant to the thesis statement of the essay. It is essential to support every presented idea, and that requires extensive research. The writer should be oriented towards having an objective tone that will require locating non-biased high-quality sources. Thus, it would be wrong to write, “I believe, language is related to some social aspects”. However, using a quote makes the idea perfect, “According to Halliday (1973), the intrinsic nature of the language is social.”
Guidelines on Objective Writing
- Start with the analysis of biasness throughout the paper and sources. You can prevent the problem via making use of valid and approved publications and articles.
- Be strong in your opinion. There are a number of countering views, but you can add clear facts and evidence in the text to make your own argument sound strong.
- Do not use any pronouns of first and second person. The only paper that is not subject to this standard is about the analysis of the conducted primary research.
- Make the language sound objective. No subjective phrases in the text will add to the objectivity and credibility of the language and the paper itself.
- Clarity in expressing ideas. The arguments will have more strength if the essay is more specific.
All in all, the basis for subjective language is made up of opinions, rumors, assumptions, suspicion, and judgment. In its turn, objectivity in language requires logical claims, facts, and observations.