2. What is a critique?
A critique answers 3 questions:
1. What is the author’s intention?
2. Is the author successful in meeting their intention?
3. Do you agree or disagree with the argument?
3. What is the author’s intention?
What is the author’s main argument?
• Sometimes, this can be found in the title. But be careful: titles aren’t
always written by the author themselves and are often times crafted
to get your attention rather than to tell you what the article will
argue.
• Sometimes this can be found in the opening paragraph. (Especially if
the author has taken a composition course.)
• Most often, you have to discern what the assertion is yourself.
4. What is the author’s intention?
How is the author supporting their argument?
• What are their main supporting points?
5. What is the author’s intention?
Can you craft a clear thesis statement of your own for the article?*
*This will be the task for your first quiz.
6. Is the author successful in meeting their
intention?
• Is the argument well-structured?
• Ideally, the argument should follow a 5-paragraph structure. But, most will
not.
• Consider: what happens in the absence of a clear thesis statement? What
happens when the ideas are not presented in a coherent order?
• Does the author define key terms?
• Are there important terms or ideas within the argument that are essential to
understand? If yes, does the author explain these clearly?
• Does the author use evidence fairly?
• Is the information up to date?
• Has the author cited representative information?
7. Is the author successful in meeting their
intention?
• Is the argument logically sound?
• Is the author connecting ideas together in a logical manner? Is the author
making connections that do not exist?
• Is the argument free of emotional fallacies?
• It is important to remember that emotion in an argument is not incorrect in
and of itself. There is a problem when an author uses emotion in place of a
clear argument.
8. Do you agree or disagree with the argument?
It is at this point that you include your opinion. But, you do so keeping
your opinion distinct from the author’s argument. There are 4 possible
responses:
1. The author is successful, and I agree with their argument.
2. The author is successful, but I disagree with their argument.
3. The author is not successful, but I agree with the argument.
4. The author is not successful, and I do not agree with their
argument.
9. The author is successful, and I agree with
their argument.
In this case, the author has developed their argument effectively. And
either you have been convinced by their argument or you agreed with
it prior to reading the article.
10. The author is successful, but I disagree with
their argument.
In this case, while the author has constructed a successful argument—
you find no fault in the structuring, supporting, or communicating of
their idea—you do not agree with their argument.
This can happen if you believed the opposite prior to reading the
article.
11. The author is not successful, but I agree with
the argument.
This happens when you find fault in the argumentation—it is poorly
structured, it contains logical and/or emotional fallacies, it does not use
supporting evidence effectively, etc.—but you are in agreement with
the author’s idea.
This can occur when the author is arguing something you already
know/believe to be true, but they have not presented their argument
effectively.
12. The author is not successful, and I do not
agree with their argument.
In this case, the author has not succeeded in developing their
argument and has
• not convinced you because of their argumentation.
• argued in such a way that convinced you that the opposite is true.
• not dissuaded you from your previous opinion.
