© Keiran Rankin and Sara Wolfe Writing Centre Critical Analysis Template In a critical analysis essay, you systematically evaluate a work’s effectiveness including what it does well and what it does poorly. It can be used to discuss a book, article or even a film. You must read the piece carefully and may need to look up terms or concepts you are unfamiliar with or research related reading prior to writing your essay. Introduction Summary Analysis Conclusion Remember critical analysis should be fun! This is your chance to say what you think about a piece, but you must back up your opinions with supporting arguments and specific details from the text. • state the title of the work, the author’s name and the date of publication • outline main ideas of the book and identify the author’s thesis • state your own thesis statement and your main idea about the work The novella, The Metamorphosis, by Frank Kafka is an excellent story because the author… The article “Narratives of intercultural transformation” by Ingrid Adams is informative and insightful because the author… • briefly outline the main ideas of the book, article or film • should involve who, what, where, when, why and how • you may also choose to discuss the structure, style or point of view This book is about… The author argues that… The setting is… The research was… The main character… The main points are… The theme is… The authors conclude… • restate your thesis in new words • summarize your main ideas if possible with new and stronger words • include a call to action for your reader You must read this book because … or This article is not useful because… • critically state what you like and do not like about the book, article or film • explain your ideas with specific examples from the book, article or film • assess whether the author has achieved their intended goal • the analysis may look at whether the work is § focused, understandable, persuasive, clear, informative § original, exciting, interesting, well-written § directed at the appropriate audience, meeting the purpose § well researched, with appropriate conclusions, and more… The analysis is made up of several different paragraphs. Running Head: COWBOYS AND ALIENS: AN ALIEN THOUGHT EXPERIMENT Cowboys and Aliens: An Alien Thought Experiment Blaise Pascal Recently, while watching the 2011 movie ​Cowboys and Aliens​, I got to thinking about the way in which an alien invasion of earth would, in all likelihood, unite the peoples of the world in one common goal and what this likelihood says about the real world today. Initially an indie film favorite, the director of the film Jon Favreau has progressed to strong mainstream visibility into the millennium and, after nearly two decades in the business, is still enjoying character stardom as well as earning notice as a wr.

1. © Keiran Rankin and Sara Wolfe
Writing Centre
Critical Analysis Template
In a critical analysis essay, you systematically evaluate a
work’s effectiveness including what it does well and
what it does poorly. It can be used to discuss a book, article or
even a film. You must read the piece carefully
and may need to look up terms or concepts you are unfamiliar
with or research related reading prior to writing
your essay.
Introduction
Summary

2. Analysis
Conclusion
Remember critical analysis should be fun! This is your chance
to say what you think about a piece, but you
must back up your opinions with supporting arguments and
specific details from the text.
• state the title of the work, the author’s name and the date of
publication
• outline main ideas of the book and identify the author’s thesis
• state your own thesis statement and your main idea about the
work
The novella, The Metamorphosis, by Frank Kafka is an
excellent story because the author…
The article “Narratives of intercultural transformation” by
Ingrid Adams is informative and
insightful because the author…

3. • briefly outline the main ideas of the book, article or film
• should involve who, what, where, when, why and how
• you may also choose to discuss the structure, style or point of
view
This book is about… The author argues that…
The setting is… The research was…
The main character… The main points are…
The theme is… The authors conclude…
• restate your thesis in new words
• summarize your main ideas if possible with new and stronger
words
• include a call to action for your reader
You must read this book because … or This article is not useful
because…
• critically state what you like and do not like about the book,
article or film
• explain your ideas with specific examples from the book,
article or film
• assess whether the author has achieved their intended goal
• the analysis may look at whether the work is
§ focused, understandable, persuasive, clear, informative
§ original, exciting, interesting, well-written
§ directed at the appropriate audience, meeting the purpose
§ well researched, with appropriate conclusions, and more…
The analysis is made up of several different paragraphs.

4. Running Head: COWBOYS AND ALIENS: AN ALIEN
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
Cowboys and Aliens: An Alien Thought Experiment
Blaise Pascal
Recently, while watching the 2011 movie Cowboys and Aliens,
I got to thinking
about the way in which an alien invasion of earth would, in all
likelihood, unite the
peoples of the world in one common goal and what this
likelihood says about the real
world today. Initially an indie film favorite, the director of the
film Jon Favreau has
progressed to strong mainstream visibility into the millennium
and, after nearly two
decades in the business, is still enjoying character stardom as
well as earning notice as
a writer/producer/director (Flemming, 2011). While Favreau
has been acclaimed for his
better known Avengers and Iron Man movies for Marvel,
Cowboys and Aliens is ranked

5. by Rotten Tomatoes as one his least popular films (Brenzican,
2011).
While frequently entertaining, the film (which was based on the
2006 graphic
novel of the same name by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg) was
generally panned by critics
and audiences (McClintock, 2011). But the not-so-obvious
moral of the story is still
valuable: human pettiness and selfishness tears us apart when
we don’t have a shared
and common culture.
The film, set in New Mexico in the 1870s, is about an eclectic
group of cowboys,
outlaws, townsfolk, and Apache indians, who are thrown
together by the necessity of
1
Running Head: COWBOYS AND ALIENS: AN ALIEN
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
defending earth against a technologically superior yet
monstrous species of alien that
are bent upon the elimination of the human race (Boucher,

6. 2011).
The film begins with outlaw Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig)
waking up to find a
strange, technological bracelet on his wrist. As the film
progresses, it becomes evident
that Lonergan has been abducted by aliens, although he has no
memory of the event
until he encounters the Talisman ‘Black Knife’ (Raoul Max
Trujillo) who provides him
with traditional medicine to restore his memory.
Lonergan has been fleeing capture by the local cattle magnate,
Woodrow
Dolarhyde (played by Harrison Ford). It turns out that
Lonergan and his outlaw gang
has stolen some of Lonergan’s gold, but in his attempt to flee
Dolarhyde’s armed ranch
hands, Lonergan ends up getting arrested by the local town
Sheriff (played by Keith
Carradine) on an outstanding warrant.
Things are not looking good for Lonergan, who has found
himself in shackles and
about to be shipped off to Santa Fe to stand trial for robbery.
But before the prison

7. stage can set off, the town and its inhabitants are suddenly
attacked by a fleet of alien
spacecraft, which not only kill many of the townsfolk, but
abduct dozens of them using
high-tech lassoing.
It quickly becomes evident that the only way the various
factions can defeat the
aliens is by working together. Ever faithful to typical
hollywood tropes, our group of
heroes-to-be initially eye each other with a combination of
distrust and disdain, informed
as they are by prejudice, greed, and self-interest. But the
imminence of extermination
2
Running Head: COWBOYS AND ALIENS: AN ALIEN
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
brings the best out of our bunch of misfits, and they all end up
good friends in the
process of saving humanity.
Beyond the award-winning great ILM in the film (Desowitz,
2011), the movie

8. raises many interesting observations about human nature itself.
Extraterrestrial
invasions in fiction are born from the post-industrialized
imagination. Aliens typically
represent everything we despise about ourselves: the ugliness of
colonialism, the abuse
of technology, and the tyranny of power, all ubiquitous features
of civilization over the
past century (Barger, 2013).
Cowboys and Aliens is a film which presents us, from the
outset, with the
ugliness and pettiness of human nature. All of the characters
have hidden motivations;
all of the characters are, in one way or another, deeply flawed
and contribute to the
destruction of the community. But, like many great science
fiction movies involving
alien invasions (Independence Day, War of the Worlds, I Am
Legend), the threat of
extinction itself is enough to override our pettiness, and help us
rediscover what is most
important: existence itself, and living with a common purpose.
This, so the philosophers
tell us, is the most important value for humans, for all other

9. values flow from this one,
universal principle (Fontanelle, 1686).
There are many lessons for us today to be drawn from Cowboys
and Aliens.
We’re living in a world, which--according to increasing
research--people are more
politically divided and isolated more than ever (Eidelson,
2013). Social media too plays
a part in separating us from other, and leading us to live
individualistic lives in which our
neighbour is, according to Mannix, “a dissociated object”
(2013). Once the human
3
Running Head: COWBOYS AND ALIENS: AN ALIEN
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
person becomes something “other” and something “detached”,
we are more readily able
to treat them as an “object” for personal gain.
But tragedy is, perhaps, the most compelling of all reasons to
bring people
together. Family tragedies bring people together and enable

10. them to bury old hatchets
and grievances. National tragedies, like 9/11, bring nations
together, and--at least for
the time being--put political differences on hold. Without a
common goal, we become
more and more fragmented. Without a common culture, we
become more and more
willing to tear one another apart.
Hopefully, we won’t have to wait for an Alien invasion to help
us overcome our
current political differences, and to rediscover our shared
humanity. Otherwise, the
extraterrestrial invasion signified in Cowboys and Aliens runs
the risk of becoming a real
ideological invasion which will destroy culture and lives in the
process.
4
Running Head: COWBOYS AND ALIENS: AN ALIEN
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT

11. References
Barger, Andrew (2013). Mesaerion: The Best Science Fiction
Short Stories 1800-1849.
USA: Bottletree Books LLC. pp. 43–44.
Boucher, Geoff (2011). "'Cowboys & Aliens' world premiere
will be at
Comic-Con International in San Diego". Los Angeles Times.
Breznican, Anthony (2011). "'Cowboys & Aliens' director Jon
Favreau on
Super Bowl sneak, nude Olivia Wilde, and his serious sci-
fi/western mash-up –
Exclusive". Entertainment Weekly.
Desowitz, Bill (2011). "ILM Talks Cowboys & Aliens Visual
Effects". indieWire.
Archived from the original on 2011-08-12. Retrieved 2011-09-
17.
Eidelson, Roy, J; Eidelson, Judy I (2013). "Dangerous ideas:
Five beliefs that propel
groups toward conflict". American Psychologist. 58 (3): 182–
192

12. Fleming, Michael (2011). "'Cowboys & Aliens' hits the big
screen". Variety.
Fontenelle, Bernard le Bovier de (1686). Conversations on the
Plurality of Worlds.
5
Running Head: COWBOYS AND ALIENS: AN ALIEN
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
Mannix, E. A. (2013). Organizations as resource dilemmas: The
effects of power
balance on coalition formation in small groups. Organizational
Behavior and
Human Decision Processes, 55, 1–22.
McClintock, Pamela (2011). "Box Office Upset: 'Smurfs' Beats
'Cowboys &
Aliens' on Friday". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus
Global Media. Archived
from the original on July 31, 2011. Retrieved July 31, 2011.

13. 6
Frankenstein
Critical Summary Final Essay
ENGLISH 1110
Due: Friday, April 12th (12 noon deadline for uploading
submissions)
Word count: 1200 words (+/- 10%)
Title of essay: “Frankenstein: Critical Analysis”
Format: As explained in class (APA or MLA)
Notes
1. Use the template provided (TRU template, see attached)
2. Your critical summary should include the following elements:
a. Background information (including thesis)
b. Summary element (describing key parts of the story

14. RELEVANT to your
thesis)
c. Critical analysis, identifying what we learn from
Frankenstein about:
i. Attitudes towards science, scientism & religion
ii. Attitudes towards feelings & emotion
iii. Influence of postmodernism and realism
3. Your essay must include a “Gettysburg Paragraph”
supporting the most central
argument of your thesis.
4. Your essay must be support by at least 7 scholarly sources
(do NOT use
Wikipedia or open-sources; use only academic supporting
sources); use both
primary and secondary sources for your essay.
5. Your essay will be graded on the strength of your:
a. Thesis
b. Proofreading
c. Use of sources
d. Formatting and structure
6. As with the last paper, there will be two in-class

15. consultations beginning next
week (tba).
7. There are NO extensions for papers.