Writing Focus: Objective Writing

During many classes in school, college and university, you will be asked to write an essay from a completely objective standpoint. This can be difficult, but once you get the initial hang of it, it’s as easy as pie!

What Is Objective Writing?

Objective writing is a piece of writing that comes from a completely neutral standpoint. When writing something objectively, it is important to remain unbiased and concerned with only the facts of the matter. So, forget what you’ve learned about writing – being passionate, injecting your personality and bringing across your beliefs are not acceptable in crafting objective writing.

Tips

The easiest way to be objective is to give each side of the topic an equal score. Write as much about one side as you do the other. This will be made easier with extensive research and discussion on the topic. Try to map out the points you have for both sides – do they more or less have the same amount of points? If not, go back to the drawing board or scrap one of the points on the other side of the debate.

Be careful in choosing your language. The types of words you can use may subconsciously sway the reader to one side of the argument and in objective writing, this is not the aim. Avoid words like “terrible” and “disgusting” and instead opt for words such as “bad” and “unsavoury”. Any word can have a latent or hidden meaning behind it, so try to avoid words that give off strong connotations and instead use the neutral-sounding words. For instance, imagine the following two titles were newspaper articles:

Local Team Lose Football Match to Competitors

Local Football Team Are Thrashed by Unforgiving Competitors

The first is fairly objective – it only gives the facts. The second one is laden with strong language and latent meaning. Thrashed gives the idea of the losing team being completely destroyed. Unforgiving paints the competitors as a group of ruthless athletes. Even just by changing a few words, your writing can become subjective and biased.

Prompts

Looking to improve your objectivity in your writing? Check out these prompts to help you along the way!

1. Report on a local event, taking into account only the facts and not your own personal opinion.
2. Analyse the content of a book you have a neutral opinion on, using only the information given to you in the book itself.
3. Write an article about an important historical event, disregarding your own beliefs on the event.

Articles

Although Mibbians are often passionate and opinionated, we are also excellent objective writers! Check out these excellent articles below from our very own articles section for some stellar examples of objective writing

"World Malaria Day" is an article that focuses on the facts and figures that surround one of the world’s most well-known diseases – Malaria. Not only does this article objectively show the causes, symptoms and preventions of Malaria, it also raises the profile of World Malaria Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness for the disease itself.

"Intelligence: The Importance of Individual Differences" is another article that takes an objective look at a topic, this one being the differences between what certain groups of people class as true intelligence. This article takes the facts and presents them in an objective and easy-to-read way.

As objective writing will take up the majority of essays you will be asked to write at an academic level, it’s definitely a good idea to become more skilled at it! Even though you may only use the skill sparingly, the ability to write from an objective viewpoint is one that is highly revered in future career opportunities.

Special thanks to silent hearts. and sheepcat; for editing!