We explain what objective and subjective texts are and what their differences are. Also, its general characteristics and some examples.
What are an objective and a subjective text?
When it comes to distinguishing between the different types of text that exist, many different criteria can be used, which address different features. One of these criteria is that of objectivity versus subjectivitywhich gives us two categories: objective texts and subjective texts, respectively.
- Objective texts. These are texts whose construction and grammatical and stylistic resources aim to preserve a verifiable, factual point of view, which excludes any type of personal opinion, inner vision or intimate reflection. That is, they are devoid of subjectivity. For example, a scientific text.
- Subjective texts. As their name indicates, they are full of evident subjectivity. Their compositional resources reveal the presence of an intention or of certain unique, individual, personal features, such as opinions, ways of saying things, emotional traits, etc.
Depending on the field in which the text operates, it will be more or less convenient for the text to be openly subjective, or to aspire to a certain air of objectivity.
See also: Summary
Objectivity and subjectivity
It is known as objectivity to the extent of telling things as they are or as they were perceivedwithout involving personal feelings, appreciations or opinions.
That is to say, we prevent who we are from influencing what we say.
Objective realities are identical for everyoneregardless of the intimate, subjective differences of those who perceive them and, therefore, closer to the concept of truth.
Instead, subjectivity implies the opposite case: the appreciation of things from the most intimate part of one’s being, from the inner forum. Personal, individual appreciations can be extremely contrary and even contradictory depending on who expresses them.
A subjective reality is, therefore, singular, unique.and two different people can experience it differently based on their emotionality and their way of seeing the world.
Differences between objective and subjective text
Based on what was explained in the previous point, we can affirm that Objective texts are those that refer to reality as it is. Its objective is to describe, explain or comment on it in such a way that any reader, no matter how different, can take said text as true, or at least as a faithful description.
On the contrary, a subjective text reveals both the interiority of the person who wrote it and the objective reality with which it deals. It does not aspire to fidelity, to reproduce reality as it is, but to show the evaluations that the author (or his characters) make of it. It shows a particular way in which said reality is lived, thought or evaluated.
Features of an objective text
Objective texts are usually abundant with:
- Enumerations (data, figures, percentages, etc.).
- Non-evaluative adjectives (explanatory, demonstrative, etc.).
- Verbs in the third person, impersonal, or first person plural.
- Most sentences appear in the indicative mood.
- Short sentences and little subordination are generally used.
- Use of specific, technical or specialized vocabulary.
- Expository tone without opinions or reflections.
Features of a subjective text
Subjective texts generally contain:
- Metaphors and other literary figures (tropes).
- Adjectives that are evaluative or have a strong personal meaning.
- Verbs in the 1st person singular (appearance of “I”).
- The different modes of the verb are used (indicative, subjunctive and imperative).
- Long sentences, with subordination, depending on the style.
- Use of diminutives, oral expressions or affective references.
- Argumentative tone, with reflections and opinions.
Objective and subjective procedures
There are certain textual procedures that provide objectivity or subjectivity to a text, such as:
- The rhetorical question. Typical of subjective texts, it is a question that does not really seek an answer, but rather to express a feeling or an existential doubt. For example: “How could I forgive him after that?”
- Expressive sentences. Sentences with or without exclamation marks that constitute an exhortation to someone, an exclamation to the gods or a complaint, and that obviously introduce subjectivity to the text. For example: “My God, what have I done!”
- Textual citations. To quote is to refer to what another person has said. Quotations are generally used to provide objectivity, particularly when they are made following the guidelines of some methodological format: with quotation marks, citing the author’s data and the work, referring to everything in some kind of bibliography afterwards, etc. In these cases, nothing is modified from the original. In contrast, when quotations are used in subjective texts, they are generally done without any methodological support, paraphrasing the original, as if the author were quoting from memory.
- Onomatopoeia. They consist of representing sounds through words: TIC Tac, Boom!etc. and generally give the text an orality, making it informal and therefore subjective.
- Footnotes. This procedure is almost exclusively used in articles and texts of academic rigor, that is, of great objectivity. It consists of adding a brief text to the footnote that clarifies data, provides additional information or indicates some type of supplementary data that serves as support or validation for what has been said.
Target Text Example
“Economic activity had its biggest drop of the year in June, with a contraction of 6.7% compared to the same month in 2017, as reported today by Indec. In addition to the effects of the drought, activity was hit by the sharp devaluation, which impacted the manufacturing industry and wholesale and retail businesses.”
Newspaper report The nation from Argentina.
Example of subjective text
“Ah, dear Andrée, how difficult it is to oppose, even accepting it with complete submission of one’s being, to the meticulous order that a woman establishes in her light residence. How guilty it is to take a little metal cup and put it at the other end of the table, to put it there simply because you have brought your English dictionaries and it is on this side, within reach, where they will be. Moving that little cup is worth a horrible unexpected red in the middle of an Ozenfant modulation, as if suddenly the strings of all the double basses broke at the same time with the same horrible crash in the quietest moment of a Mozart symphony.”
Short story “Letter to a young lady in Paris” by Julio Cortázar
When is objectivity important?
Objectivity is highly valued in certain contexts, such as scientific or journalisticIt involves an agreement between the reader and the writer: things will be told or explained in the correct way they were, with great detail, and the reader will be allowed to form his or her own opinions or ideas regarding the subject, the text and the author.
The interpretation, in that sense, is totally free and alien to the author, and that is why these texts can be taken more or less as true or validas forms of verifiable knowledge.
When is subjectivity important?
Subjectivity is necessary and desired in those contexts where expressive talent is valuedwhether artistic or not. These contexts can be a literary work, an opening speech at a public event, or even a political meeting in which one seeks to convince people of something.
Subjective texts propose or defend a mode of argumentation or interpretation of what happened. Therefore, its objective may be to convince the reader of something, move him towards a feeling or simply confess something intimate and personal.
See also: Literature
The paradox of objectivity
This is the name given to the fact that, in practically any context of verbal language, one cannot aspire to true and total objectivity on the part of the author.
Human beings are subjective people, who We belong to a community with a specific cultureOur way of thinking has been influenced by various learning instances, such as family, school, university, affections, etc.
In that way, Although we may strive to be objective, we will never be 100% objective.. In the very selection of our words, in the desire to address a topic, our subjectivity is revealed.
Subjectivity even affects the way we perceive, since our apparently objective senses respond to the previous criteria we have of things. This can even happen in a way that we do not consciously realize: there are many mental processes that we do not control or know.
For this reason it is often said that objectivity is a sum of subjectivities.