The arts and humanities often touch on subjects with personal impact for many writers. As a result, it can be easy to write a piece that is overly informed by your personal experience. You will write more effectively if you stick to an analysis that is informed by the text and authoritative secondary material (such as biographical or contemporaneous historical information), rather than allowing your writing to become too anecdotal or subjective.
Some essay questions set for students include wording like ‘What do you think?’ or ‘How do you feel about X?’ This formulation highlights that the question wants you to give your opinion and to elicit your ideas, but you must still provide an informed, substantiated and academic opinion. Do not be tempted to lapse into personal anecdote about your subjective experience, and always retain an academic tone:
In an early scene in The Great Gatsby, we meet Daisy Buchanan and Jordan Baker as they sit on a sofa. Fitzgerald gives the women an insubstantial quality with the image of their clothes ‘rippling and fluttering’ in the breeze. This contrasts with the solid presence of Daisy’s husband, Tom, who is described as ‘sturdy’ and having ‘a body capable of enormous leverage’.
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When we meet Daisy and Jordan at the Buchanans’ house early on in The Great Gatsby, many of us will be reminded of people we know who are rich in material possessions but still not satisfied. Their clothes billowing in the breeze highlight their insubstantial nature, much like wealthy people in the real world whose many possessions mask a total lack of depth.
The impression that creative works can leave on their readers leads to another pitfall: it can influence your style. You may be writing about a text that is written in an unusual or distinctive style. This is a worthy subject of your analysis, but it should not influence the style of your own writing. A whimsical style is not appropriate for analytical writing, and will only detract from your message.
