Reference no: EM131589457
Assignment
A critique is an analysis of and a commentary on another piece of writing. It generally focuses on technique as well as on content. A critical response essay (or interpretive essay or review) has two missions: to summarize a source's main idea (briefly) and to respond to the source's main ideas with reactions based on your synthesis. This critical response also incorporates counterpoint, or a counterargument. As a critic you are taking a skeptical or even opposing position - does the essay convince you?
I. Summarizing
The first step to writing is to read actively and thoughtfully, seeking answers to the following questions as you go:
• What are the main points, ideas, or arguments of the work (book, article, play essay, etc.)?
• How is the work organized?
• What evidence/support does the author give?
• What is the primary purpose of the work?
II. Analyzing (interpretation and evaluation)
To help you generate content for your analysis, consider the following questions:
• Does the work achieve its purpose? Fully or only partially?
• Was the purpose worthwhile to begin with? Or was it too limited, trivial, broad, theoretical, etc.?
• Is any of the evidence weak or insufficient? In what way? Conversely, is the evidence/support particularly effective or strong?
• Can I supply further explanation to clarify or support any of the main points, ideas, and arguments?
• Are there sections you don't understand? Why?
• Was there any area where the author offered too much or too little information?
• Is the organization of the work an important factor? Does its organization help me understand it, hinder my understanding, or neither?
• Is anything about the language or style noteworthy?
III. Counterargument
Consider the above questions in those two sections as a foundation to argue your point (and please don't assume that there is no other position - that is a narrow ideological view). Your goal in the final section is to take the two previous sections (summary/synthesis, and analysis/evaluation/interpretation) as an opportunity to posit (make, state, etc.) an argument or position that undermines, problematizes, debunks or otherwise causes a problem for the argument you are assessing. This sort of analysis that resists glazing over potential problems in favor of a complimentary review provides an opportunity (a vital one) to strengthen the original argument, amend it, or otherwise take into consideration something that was omitted or misstated.
Organization
The length or your essay and whether you respond to a single passage or to an entire work will vary with the assignment. Regardless of length and breadth, all critical responses include the following basic elements:
• Introduction:
• Body:
o Summary
o Transition
o Analysis: Evaluate the evidence: sufficient (enough evidence, examples), representative (large enough pool/sample), relevant (accurate correlations), accurate, claims fairly qualified
o Transition
o Response: base reaction on your own experience, prior knowledge, and opinions (?)
o Counterargument
• Conclusion:
• Documentation:
There is flexibility in how you arrange things (as we've discussed during this semester) but the parts should be there, and in a way that a reader can distinguish your purpose in each section/paragraph. You don't have to use a hamburger 5-paragraph/5-section model, but the things you are trying to accomplish should not be a mystery for the reader to unpack.
Attachment:- Paper.rar