The document outlines the principles and techniques for writing critiques, emphasizing the importance of objective assessment and critical writing methods such as formalism and feminism. It details the structure of a critique, including the introduction, body, and conclusion, alongside various critical theories like reader-response and Marxist criticism. The document also presents a step-by-step approach to successful critiquing, which includes reading, analyzing, and evaluating an author's work.

2. a. understand the principles and uses of a critique;
b. use appropriate critical writing techniques in writing a critique
such as formalism, feminism, etc.; and
c. produce an objective assessment of a piece of art (i.e., literary
piece, scholarly article).

3. A critique is a careful analysis of an argument to determine
what is said, how well the points are made, what assumptions
underlie the argument, what issues are overlooked, and what
implications are drawn from such observations.
It is a systematic yet personal response and evaluation of
what you read.

4. 1. describe: give the reader a sense of the writer’s overall
purpose and intent;
2. analyze: examine how the structure and language of
the text convey its meaning;
3. interpret: state the significance or importance of each
part of the text; and
4. assess: make a judgment of the work’s worth or value.

5. 1. analyze: i.e., to clarify or “make sense of” ideas. It is
likely to require you to identify ideas, to show how these
ideas are related, and to identify alternative
approaches.
2. evaluate - i.e., to assess the worth or significance of
ideas. It requires you to evaluate ideas and develop a
substantiated point of view about the ideas.

6. fiction/literature and nonfiction.

7. I. Introduction
A. name of author and work
B. general overview of the subject and summary of the
author’s argument
C. focusing (or thesis) sentence indicating how you will
divide the whole task for discussion or the elements you
will discuss

8. II. Body
A. objective description of a major point in the work
B. detailed analysis of how the work conveys an idea or
concept
C. interpretation of the concept
D. repetition of description, analysis, interpretation if
more than one major concept is covered

9. III. Conclusion
A. overall interpretation
B. relationship of arguments to the subject as a whole
C. a critical assessment of the value, worth, or meaning of
the work, both negative and positive.

10. I. Introduction
A. name of author and work
B. summary/description of work as a whole
C. focusing sentence indicating what element you plan to
examine
D. a general indication of the overall significance of work

11. II. Body
A. a literal description of the first major element or
portion of the work
B. detailed analysis
C. interpretation
D. a literal description of the second major element
E. detailed analysis
F. interpretation (including, if necessary, the relationship
to the first major point and so on)

12. III. Conclusion
A. overall interpretation of the elements studied
B. consideration of those elements within the context of
the work as a whole
C. a critical assessment of the value, worth, meaning, or
significance of the work, both positive and negative

14. • A formalist reading of a text focuses on symbols,
metaphor, imagery, characterization, and so on.
• Formalism ignores the author’s biography and focuses
only on the interaction of literary elements within the
text.
• Consider the elements of plot, narrator, structure,
etc.
• It is what you do most often in English literature

15. • Attempts to discover meaning by a close reading of a work of
literature. Focus is on:
o Form, organization, and structure
o Word choice and language
o Multiple meanings.
• Considers the work in isolation, disregarding the author’s intent,
author’s background, context, and anything else outside of the work
itself.

16. • Gender criticism analyzes literature through
the lens of socially constructed gender roles.
• The most significant part of gender criticism is
feminism, which critiques and seeks to correct
women’s subordination to men in society.
• In its most basic form, feminism is about
equality.

17. • Feminist critics analyze the role of gender in works of
literature. Leading critic Elaine Showalter describes
two purposes of feminist criticism:
o Feminist critique: The analysis of works by male
authors, especially in the depiction of women’s writing
o Gynocriticism: The study of women’s writing.

18. • Theories focusing on sexual difference and
sexual politics.
• Includes gender studies, lesbian studies,
cultural feminism, radical feminism, and
socialist/materialist feminism.

19. • Readers’ ability to understand is subject to
readers’ particular “interpretive community.”
• A reader brings certain assumptions to a text-
based on the interpretive strategies he/she has
learned in a community.

20. • Sees the reader as essential to the interpretation of a
work
• Each reader is unique, with different educations,
experiences, moral values, opinions, tastes, etc.
• Therefore, each reader’s interaction with work is
unique.
• Analyzes the features of the text that shape and guide
a reader’s reading.

21. • Emphasizes recursive reading—rereading for
new interpretations.
• Reader-response theory has been criticized as
being overly impressionistic and guilty of the
affective fallacy (too focused on the emotional
effect of the work). Less tactful critics have
plainly said that it is not intellectual.

22. • These attacks resulted in an adaptation of
reader-response criticism called reception
theory.

23. • As the name suggests, this type of criticism reads
the text looking for the author’s influence.
• By examining the author’s life, we can have a
deeper understanding of his/her writing.

24. • The philosophical approach analyzes the morals
and the idea of the work, which some deem too
difficult to interpret reasonably. Opposers to the
philosophical approach believed that books should
be based purely on its artistic content, not your
morals.

25. • Marxist criticism is based on the social and
economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels. Their beliefs include the following:
⚬ Value is based on labor.
⚬ The working class will eventually overthrow
the capitalist middle class.

26. ⚬ In the meantime, the middle class exploits
the working class.
⚬ Most institutions—religious, legal,
educational, and governmental— are
corrupted by middle-class capitalists.

27. • Marxism generally focuses on the clash between
the dominant (bourgeoisie) and repressed
(proletariat) classes.
• Investigates assumptions and values associated
with culture, race, class
• For example: Are the rich always good or bad?
Are the poor always good or bad?

28. • Explores the power struggles of those who are
minorities in the dominant culture.
• Examines who has/does not have power, how they
attained it/why they don’t have it, and what they
do with it/how they are manipulated by it.

30. • what is the key theme or purpose?
• what important points or arguments are
presented?
• what are the key concepts?
• what methodologies are used?

31. • what theoretical framework does the
author use?
• what are the links between theories and
examples?
• what is the relative weighting or emphasis
of ideas?

32. • what evidence is used to support points?
• what assumptions are made?
• how are the ideas linked to the wider body
of knowledge?
• what are the implications of the ideas?

33. • what alternative arguments are there?
• what other interpretations are there?
• what other approaches or conceptual
frameworks are there?

34. • how appropriate is the research design?
• how reliable is the evidence?

35. • how valid are the assumptions?
• how balanced is the argument?
• what is the contribution or significance of
the source?
• how clear and unambiguous is the writing?

36. • having gone through the Steps 1 to 4, what
is your "point of or position about the
topic?

38. Successful critiquing begins with the READING:
1. Read the entire article, trying to identify the writer’s
main point. Underline any unfamiliar words as you read, but
do not stop to look them up until you have finished reading.
2. Look up the unfamiliar words, and then carefully and
slowly reread the article. This time look for the ideas the
author uses to support the main point.

39. 3. Summarize the article in your own words, using just one
or two sentences.
4. Check out the author’s credentials and the reliability of
the sources. a. Is this a reliable author? b. Can he or she
be considered an authority on the subject? c. Are the
sources upon which the article is based clearly and
accurately indicated?

40. 5. Read the article one more time to analyze how the
author has supported his or her ideas. Are there examples,
facts, or opinions? What is the author’s bias? Are opposing
arguments addressed competently? Are you convinced or
unconvinced about the author’s main point? Why? Will you
incorporate the information you read into your life, or do
you reject it? Why?