User blog comment:Derpyspaghetti/Prose!/@comment-28266772-20170202151315

Any good analysis should start with a definition. The definition of prose is as follows:

Written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure.

I think you've conflated prose with 'description', 'descriptive passages', or perhaps the voice of the work. At least I think so, and I suspect it mainly because you, and others, seem to divide it between other aspects of writing like character, dialogue and plot. That's not the right way to think about it. Admittedly, I notice a lot of analyses distinguish between dialogue and prose but, technically speaking, they're the same thing unless someone is actually quoting poetry. Either way, prose is a large all-encompassing term that captures any and all literature, although especially fiction, that cannot be classified as either poetry, or theatre. But prose is not a tangible component of a story, it's a category into which works of literary art are included or excluded (although, to be fair, the dividing line between prose and poetry can be blurred; Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange is a good example of this).

Despite this confusion, for the most part I think you're mostly right. People should pay more attention to the words they choose, and the effect they can have. I think critical reading is the most important way to achieve this. People need to pay more attention to how great writers achieve what they do.