Compare passages for subjective and objective tone
Key notes :
✈️ Tone is a writer’s attitude as expressed in a text.
✈️ To establish an objective tone, a writer
- maintains a neutral stance towards a topic, regardless of their personal feelings;
- presents ideas as accurately as possible, supporting ideas with observations and measurable evidence;
- avoids loaded language, which has strong positive or negative connotations.
Example: The law has proved controversial, and a protest is planned for 9 March.
The writer mentions the protest to provide factual evidence that the law has caused controversy. It’s not clear how the writer personally feels about the law.
✈️ To establish a subjective tone, a writer
- injects their own feelings, values or judgments into the presentation of a topic;
- supports ideas with personal opinions and beliefs;
- uses strongly emotional or loaded language;
- uses personal pronouns, like I, to present topics from their perspective.
Example: This outrageous law has invigorated protesters, who will gather on 9 March.
✈️ The writer includes subjective language, like ‘outrageous’ and ‘invigorated’, which reveals the writer’s feelings. It’s clear that the writer personally disagrees with the law.
✈️ Academic writing generally calls for an objective tone, which helps communicate that the writer is credible and has presented an accurate and unbiased argument. However, a subjective tone is appropriate for some forms of writing, such as personal narratives, opinion pieces and reviews.
Learn with an example
📚 Select the text that has a more objective tone.
Results of a global education survey today show US high school students come in .. 26th out of 65 places worldwide in combined scores for maths, science and reading tests.
Technical chops are just one ingredient needed for innovation and economic success. America overcomes its disadvantage—a less-technically-trained workforce—with other advantages such as creativity, critical thinking and an optimistic outlook.
From Vishakha N. Desai, ‘The US Must Start Learning from Asia’, copyright 2010 by Cable News Network and from Fareed Zakaria, ‘Why America’s Obsession with STEM Education is Dangerous’, copyright 2015 by Washington Post
- The first text has a more objective tone. It cites examples (results of a global education survey) to support the suggestion that students in the US rank below other students in terms of performance on maths, science and reading tests. The other passage presents the writer’s personal opinion, stating technical chops are just one ingredient needed for innovation and economic success and America overcomes its disadvantage
📚 Select the text that has a more objective tone.
The belief that increasing the minimum wage is socially beneficial is a delusion. It is short-sighted and ignores evident reality. Workers who retain their jobs are made better off but only at the expense of unskilled, mostly young, workers who either lose their jobs or can’t find a job at the legal minimum.
Supporters of minimum-wage laws maintain that they enhance the work ethic and increase the standard of living of workers and that they decrease the cost of social welfare programmes and protect workers against exploitation at the hands of their employers.
From James Dorn, ‘The Minimum Wage Delusion, And The Death Of Common Sense’, copyright 2013 by Forbes Media and from ‘Minimum Wage’, copyright 1998 by Encyclopædia Britannica
- The second text has a more objective tone. It points out the beliefs held by ‘supporters of minimum-wage laws’. The other passage presents the writer’s personal opinion, using subjective language such as the belief that increasing the minimum wage is socially beneficial is a delusion. It is short-sighted and ignores evident reality.
📚 Select the text that has a more objective tone.
A sign announced that this was no ordinary footpath but the celebrated Appalachian Trail. Running more than 2,100 miles along America’s eastern seaboard, through the serene and beckoning Appalachian Mountains, the AT is the granddaddy of long hikes. From Georgia to Maine, it wanders through fourteen states . . .
The Appalachian Trail is one of the longest continuously marked footpaths in the world, measuring roughly 2,180 miles in length. The Trail goes through fourteen states along the crests and valleys of the Appalachian mountain range from the southern terminus at Springer Mountain, Georgia, to the Trail’s northern terminus at Katahdin, Maine.
From US National Parks Service, ‘The Appalachian Trail in Harpers Ferry: Adventure Guide’ and from Bill Bryson, ‘A Walk in the Woods’, copyright 2006 by Anchor Books
- The second text has a more objective tone. The other passage uses more subjective and emotional language, such as serene and beckoning and the granddaddy of long hikes.
Let’s practice!
Select the text that has a more objective tone.
The belief that increasing the minimum wage is socially beneficial is a delusion. It is short-sighted and ignores evident reality. Workers who retain their jobs are made better off but only at the expense of unskilled, mostly young, workers who either lose their jobs or can’t find a job at the legal minimum.
Supporters of minimum-wage laws maintain that they enhance the work ethic and increase the standard of living of workers and that they decrease the cost of social welfare programmes and protect workers against exploitation at the hands of their employers.
From James Dorn, ‘The Minimum Wage Delusion, And The Death Of Common Sense’, copyright 2013 by Forbes Media and from ‘Minimum Wage’, copyright 1998 by Encyclopædia Britannica