One of the main distinctions to be made in criticizing prose is whether the writing is objective or subjective.
An objective writer is one whose personality is kept in the background; while we can then appreciate the quality of his intellect. We derive from subjective prose information about the private personality of the writer – writing which reveals the writer's tastes and temperament. An objective writer writes authoritatively, the truth independent of his personal impressions. A subjective writer makes no attempt to keep his personal impressions to himself; he shows clearly that he is writing of things as seen through his eyes; and how they appear will differ according to his moods.
Overall scientific or factual writing is usually of the objective kind; memoirs, personal narratives and imaginative writing are often of the subjective. We read the former kind of writing for what it has to say; the second for an impression of the writer's personality.
Objective narrative is factual, objective description, realistic; subjective description, impressionistic.
Clarity is the great objective in prose writing – the quality of saying exactly what is intended as unmistakably and simply as possible, without false emphasis or straining after effect. Indeed, we might say – and it is one of the paradoxes of all good prose – that the great aim of style is to divert attention from itself and towards the subject. If we are continually interested, moved and excited by what we read, then the writer is doing his work successfully. If we are forever stopping to think what he means, or if we are, so to speak, forced to admire his style, he is not writing well. Yet if our intelligence, taste and common sense is impaired, we shall be stirred by inferior writing; that is why we must sometimes stop to criticize – the improvement of our common sense is the justification of criticism.
The first thing to do is ascertain what the writer is actually saying, then consider how he says it – in terms of expressing his meaning as clearly as possible. As we proceed, we tend to find that our judgement as to whether it was worth saying tends to form itself automatically. And remember: It is easy to pick holes in poor writing; it is much more important and valuable to form our sense of what constitutes the good.
The problem of how far personal bias affects critical judgement is insoluble; but the more deeply and thoroughly one trains the critical judgement, the less dependent will it be on personal prejudice and the influence of fashion; and the truer and deeper will be our appreciation of literature.
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