A small edit from plot to analysis

In my academic-writing courses for English majors at the University of Basel, I frequently comment on the use of "is about" and similar phrases in the first sentences of essays. Such constructions put off critical analysis and interpretation in favor of plot summary: "Jane Austen’s novel 'Emma' is about Emma Woodhouse, a young woman who loves matchmaking and being right." My editing suggestion is to make the character, rather than the novel, the subject (here, combining the above with the essay's second sentence): "In Jane Austen’s novel 'Emma', Emma Woodhouse, a young woman who loves matchmaking and being right, plans to transform her protégée Harriet into a perfect woman of society." (Andrew Shields, #111words, 19 April)