Last Updated on Nov. 15, 2009
The task in writing a critique is to turn your critical reading of a passage into a systematic evaluation in order to deepen your reader's (and your own) understanding of that passage. You are interested in determining what an author says, how well the points are made, what assumptions underlie the argument, what issues are overlooked, and what implications can be drawn from such an analysis. Critiques, positive or negative, should include a fair and accurate summary of the passage; they may draw on and cite information and ideas from other sources (your reading or your personal experience and observations); and they should also include a statement of your own assumptions. In the process of writing a critical assessment, you are forced to examine your own knowledge, beliefs, and assumptions. Ultimately, the critique is a way of learning about yourself --- yet another example of the ways in which writing is useful as a tool for critical thinking.
How to Write Critiques
You may find it useful to organize a critique into five sections: introduction, summary, assessment of the presentation, your response to the presentation, and conclusion.
Guidelines for Writing Critiques:
Read the sample critique on "We are not Created Equal in Every Way", discuss it over with the strategies of writing critiques introduced. Write a 4-5 pages critique over Sharon Begley's article "East vs. West: One Sees the Big Picture, the Other is Focused".
Why to write verbal-visual essay?
Writing process:
This 5-page essay assignment requires you to compare/contrast a pair of related texts on the same topic, date rape, and analyze how TWO of the writers interpret the topic from their particular perspectives.
When we compare, we are focusing on likeness or areas of agreement; when we contrast, we are focusing on differences or areas of disagreement. When we do comparison and contrast, we are to examine different perspectives, to see if one is superior to another, to see if we ourselves have yet another perspective, and so on.
How to startYou can compare or contrast 2 essays written about date rape with specific focus and from different perspectives. Reread each of them several times. Likeness and differences may not be immediately apparent, nor may any significance strike you at the start. Doing some preliminary writing may help.
Write a thesis statement that will clearly inform your audience that you are going to explore similarities, differences, or both. You might decide to write something like "After studying both of these accounts carefully, I saw two distinct differences." Or you might decide to name the areas of likeness or difference: "The authors are similar in their recognition of ..." You may even decide to announce the personal significance of your comparisons in your thesis statement: "Seeing the biased way in which one of the texts presented this event made me wary of accepting any printed reports at face value."
Organizing ideasThis assignment fits well with what you have already learned about essay structure. You can give an introduction that will end with your thesis statement. The actual discussion of likeness and/or differences will take place in the body paragraphs, and the significance of your analysis can be introduced or expanded upon in the conclusion. The major decision you will have to make is whether to use block or point-by-point organization or some combination of the two.
Remember to begin each body paragraph with a topic sentence indicating that this point will be discussed for both texts: for example, " Both accounts agree on the cause of ..." Then provide with as much information as is needed to help them see what you mean. Use the quotation to support your points and let the audience see that the texts really do say very similar - or very different- things.
In your conclusion, name or expand upon the significance of your analysis, but be careful not to make too broad a statement.
As students are becoming more confident in their thinking and writing abilities, they should learn how to evaluate information, how to express their own perspectives clearly and how to persuade and convince readers with their opinions.
Why to argue and persuade?
Our beliefs usually come from four sources: people of authority, recorded references, observed evidence, and personal evidence.
People often continue to believe the same ideas they were brought up with without ever examining and deciding for themselves what to think. Perspectives, or points of view, are what people express when they speak and write and also the vantage points from which they perceive events or issues. So a complex interaction exists between perceptions and perspectives. People's perspectives are formed by beliefs, interests, needs, age, gender, nationality, ethnicity, health, education - the multiple factors of life. These factors of perspective influence perceptions; at the same time, perceptions continuously influence perspective. Various people can be exposed to the same stimuli or events and yet have different perceptions, as if each of us views the world through personal "contact lenses". We are usually aware that we are wearing these lenses. Instead, without our realizing it, our lenses act as filters that select and shape what we perceive. To understand how people perceive the world, we have to understand their individual lenses, which influence how they actively select, organize and interpret the events in their experience.
Effective critical thinkers are aware of the lenses that they - and others - are wearing. People unaware of the nature of their own lenses can often mistake their own perceptions for objective truth, not having examined either the facts or others' perceptions of a given issue.
Instead of simply accepting the views of others, students should gradually develop the ability to identify and evaluate beliefs before accepting them with critical thinking, and, at the same time, they should also know how to persuade readers to accept the well-supported beliefs.
Topic of Essay IV:
For Essay IV, students are expected to use critical thinking to re-evaluate a belief which has been accepted by most people as common sense. For example, in Europe before the fifteenth century, the common belief that the earth was flat was supported by the following reasons and evidence:
People of authority: Many educational and religious authorities taught that the earth was flat.
Recorded references: the written opinions of scientific experts supported belief in a flat earth.
Observed evidence: no person had ever circumnavigated the earth.
Personal experience: from a normal vantage point, the earth looks flat.
Why do you think is it a falsifiable belief? How can you convince the readers that the belief is false? with personal experience? through people of authority? Try to find authoritative supports to develop your opinion. The topic should be developed into a 5-7 pages long essay, each point developed in details. Remember description and narration can be supportive techniques to argumentation.
The purpose of this essay:
In this information age, we are flooded with data, stores, and pictures from television, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, and computers. Thus, critical thinkers and thoughtful writers have to face a continuing challenge to evaluate information they receive and to redefine their beliefs accordingly. Therefore, it is very critical to think twice and ask why before believing.
