How to write an objective balanced review or

critique of a work of art, an event or a program

CLOSELY
DifferentEXAMINE THE PICTURE.
Critical Writing Techniques
WHAT POSSIBLE MEANINGS CAN THIS PICTURE
CONVEY?
OBSERVE THE COLORS OF THE PICTURE, WHAT
EMOTIONS DO THEY EVOKE?
CLOSELY EXAMINE THE PICTURE.
WHAT POSSIBLE MEANINGS CAN THIS PICTURE
CONVEY?
Closely examine the picture.
OBSERVE
What possibleTHE COLORS
meanings OFpicture
can this THE convey?
PICTURE, WHAT
EMOTIONS
Observe DO of
the colors THEY EVOKE?
the picture, what emotions do they evoke?
 REVIEW OR CRITIQUE
 A review or 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.
 Its main purpose is not informational, but analytic and
persuasive.
 It is a systematic, yet personal response and evaluation of what
you read.
 It is a genre of academic writing that briefly summarizes and
critically evaluates a work or concept.
 CRITIQUES CAREFULLY ANALYZE A VARIETY OF WORKS

Creative works: novels, exhibits, film, images, poetry

Research: monographs, journal articles, systematic reviews, theories
Media: news reports, and feature articles

 
 WRITING A CRITIQUE

A critique uses formal academic writing style and has a

clear structure, an introduction, body and conclusion.
 

The body of a critique includes a

summary of the work and a detailed
evaluation.
 The purpose of an evaluation is to gauge the usefulness or
impact of a work in a particular field.
 
 WHY DO WE WRITE CRITIQUES?
It helps us to develop:
 A knowledge of the work’s subject area or related works.
 An understanding of the work’s purpose, intended audience,
development of argument, structure of evidence or creative
style.
 A recognition of the strengths and weaknesses of the work.

 
 ARTICLE CRITIQUE
 An article critique is a genre of academic writing that provides
critical evaluation through intensive analysis of an article, which
involves giving a brief summary of the article.
 Reading an article critique helps an audience to understand the
key points of the article, and the author’s ideas and intentions. It
indicates the perceived success of an article and analyses its
strengths and weaknesses.
 Does this text accurately support the thesis the author has
put forth and are those arguments worth reading?
 Article Critique
 To be able to write an effective critique, writers must also have a full
understanding of the topic they are analyzing.
 The main purposes of writing an article critique are to:
 Describe the main ideas and what the author wants to express
 Analyze each important and interesting point and develop an explanation
of the article
 Interpret the author’s intention
 Summarize and evaluate the value of an article, stating whether you
agree or disagree with the author, with supporting evidence.
CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING SECTIONS
 Introduction
 Summary of the Article
 Analysis and/or Evaluation of the Article
 Response
 Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
Begin your critique with sentences giving the following
information
• Introduce the author and the title of the work (article)
• Provide author’s main point (“take away”)
• Add background information for reader
• State your overall evaluation of the work
SUMMARY (OF THE ARTICLE)
• Entire work or section of it
• Written objectively to relate:
 Author’s overall point (“take away”)
 Support provided for the overall point
• Goal of a summary
 Provides author’s thesis and main point untainted by
opinion
ANALYSIS/EVALUATION
Evaluative Criteria
 Accuracy of Information
 Definition of key terms(or lack of)
 Hidden assumptions
 Clarity of language
 Fairness
 Logic and organization
 Common Fallacies:
hasty generalization, bandwagon appeal, oversimplification,
either/or fallacy
RESPONSE
 Where do I agree or disagree with?
 What does the author get right or wrong?
 What ultimate merit/use does the work have?
 Would you recommend this work as a credible research source?

Consider your response section a miniature essay. Your

thesis is your opinion of the work. Your main points in
this section support the opinion expressed in your thesis.
CONCLUSION
• Remind audience of overall importance of the topic.
• Combine your rating with personal response to focus on
overall strength and weaknesses.
• State what you believe is the ultimate success of the
work.
 HOW TO WRITE A CRITIQUE?

1. Study the work under discussion.

2. Make notes on key parts of the work.
3. Develop an understanding of the main argument or
purpose being expressed in the work.
4. Consider how the work relates to a broader issue or
context.
5. Read about the critical approaches.
CRITICAL WRITING

 involves considering evidence

 is not necessarily writing about the topic in a negative way; it is
simply making sure that you have considered all sides of the
argument. For example, in your reading you are likely to
discover different authors with different views. It is your job as
a critical writer to consider all of these views in your essay to
show your awareness of all the issues associated with your
topic.
 WHAT IS LITERARY CRITICISM?
- is the comparison, analysis, interpretation, and/or evaluation of works of literature.
- Literary criticism is essentially an opinion, supported by evidence, relating to theme,
style, setting or historical or political context. It usually includes discussion of the
work’s content and integrates your ideas with other insights gained from research.
- Although criticism may include some of the following elements in order to support an
idea, literary criticism is NOT a plot summary, a biography of the author, or simply
finding fault with the literature.
- Researching, reading, and writing works of literary criticism will help you to make
better sense of the work, form judgments about literature, study ideas from different
points of view, and determine on an individual level whether a literary work is worth
reading.
WHAT ARE THE CRITICAL APPROACHES IN WRITING A CRITIQUE?

There are different ways or standpoints to analyze and

critique a certain material.
One can critique a material based on its technical aspects,
its approach to gender, your reaction as the reader, or
through its portrayal of class struggle and social structure.
1. FORMALISM/FORMALIST CRITICISM
 “claims that literary works contain intrinsic properties and treats
each work as a distinct work of art.”
 it focuses on the text
 uses close reading
 The writer examines this portion and does a careful step–by–step
analysis and explanation of the text.
 The analysis looks at the formal features of the text: structure,
imagery, tone, genre, characterization, symbolism, etc.
Sample formalist critique of Dead Stars, a classic Filipino short story by Paz Marquez
 2. READER RESPONSE CRITICISM
 “focuses on each reader’s personal reactions to a text, assuming meaning is created by
a reader’s or interpretive community’s personal interaction with a text. Assumes no
single, correct, universal meaning exists because meaning resides in the minds of
readers.”
The common aspects looked into when using reader - response criticism are:
 Interaction between the reader and the text in creating meaning
 The impact of reader’s delivery of sounds and visuals on enhancing and changing
meaning.
Reader-Response Criticism
How does the text make you feel? What memories or experiences come to mind when
you read? If you were the central protagonist, would you have behaved differently? Why?
What values or ethics do you believe are suggested by the story? As your reading of a
text progresses, what surprises you, inspires you?
Sample Reader Response Critique of Dead Stars
Article Critique Paper

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path
WRITE A BALANCE CRITIQUE OF THE ARTICLE

I. Introduction (3 points)
II. Summary of the article (3 points)
III. Analysis and Evaluation (5 points)
IV. Response (4 points)
V. Conclusion (4 points)
VI.References (1 point)
3. BIOGRAPHICAL CRITICISM

 “begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by
actual people and that understanding an author’s life can help readers
more thoroughly comprehend the work.”
 this type of criticism relies on other things the author has written or
traditional biographies, facts and information about his/her life
 the biographical critic “focuses on explicating the literary work by using
the insight provided by knowledge of the author’s life.... [B]iographical
data should amplify the meaning of the text, not drown it out with
irrelevant material.”
4. HISTORICAL CRITICISM
 “seeks to understand a literary work by investigating the social, cultural,
and intellectual context that produced it – a context that necessarily
includes the artist’s biography and milieu.”
 also known as the “higher Criticism”
 is a branch of criticism that investigates the origins of ancient texts. A
branch of history which looked at literature of evidence about economic
and political events going on at the time when the works were produced,
and that also looked at historical events to explain the content of literary
works.
 5. MARXIST CRITICISM
It isatathe
 is similar to historical criticism because it looks social philosophy
cultural, economic,
and political context during which the story wasdeveloped
written by Karl Marx
 looks specifically at the economic and politicalandstatus
Frederick Engelsand
of the author in
the characters in the story the 19th century. The
 Marxist Criticism focuses on ways texts reflect, reinforce,
ultimate basisor of
challenge
the the
effects of class, power relations, and social roles.
social relations we
 The common aspects looked into when using Marxist criticism are:
experience is the material
 Social class as represented in the work conditions by which we
 Social class of the writer/creator
live.
 Social class of characters
 Conflicts and interactions between economic classes
Sample Marxist Criticism of Dead Stars
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6. FEMINISM/FEMINIST CRITICISM

 “focuses on how literature presents women as subjects of socio –

political, psychological, and economic oppression. It also reveals how
aspects of our culture are patriarchal, i.e. how our culture views men as
superior and women as inferior.”
6. FEMINISM/FEMINIST CRITICISM
 The common aspects looked into when using feminism are:
 How gender issues are presented in literary works and other aspects of human
production and daily life
 How women are socially, politically, psychologically, and economically oppressed
by patriarchy
 How patriarchal ideology is an overpowering presence
 How does the story re-inscribe or contradict traditional gender roles?
- For example, are the male characters in “power positions” while the women are
“dominated”?
- Are the men prone to action, decisiveness, and leadership while the female
characters are passive subordinate?
- Do gender roles create tension within the story?
- Do characters’ gender roles evolve over the course of the narrative?
Sample Feminist Critique of Dead Stars
7. GENDER CRITICISM
 “examines how sexual identity influences the creation and reception of
literary works.”
 Gender studies originated during the feminist movement, when critics
began investigating the unexamined assumptions around gender in a piece
of literature.
 These critics may also explore how images of men or women in literature
might reflect or reject the social norms around gender in a particular
society.
Strategy Questions:
1. How is the relationship between men and women depicted in this certain work?
2. How does the treatment of gender in the work reflects the work’s meaning?
 This approach is
8. PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITICISM inspired by the work of
a highly esteemed
 also known as Psychoanalytical Criticism, is the analysis of an author's
psychologist Sigmund
unintended message. The analysis focuses on the biographical
circumstances of an author.
Freud who introduced
the process
 The main goal is to analyze the unconscious elements within aof
literary
text based on the background of the author. introspection, or
 Two Ways to focus psychological reading of the looking
text: into past
1. author experiences and latent
2. character/s desires, in order to
What motivates the character to perform the actions?
understand the rationale
What’s going on inside the character’s mind?
behind human behavior.
HOW DOES PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITICISM WORK?
1. Use of Psychological Theory

2. Ask Psychological Questions

Why do the characters react the way they do?
What causes the character to mature in the book?
How have the characters’ lives and backgrounds influenced their actions?
What fears do the characters have? Why?
What kind of personalities do they have?
9. MYTHOLOGICAL/ARCHETYPAL CRITICISM
 emphasizes “the recurrent universal patterns underlying most literary
works.” Combining the insights from anthropology, psychology, history,
and comparative religion, mythological criticism “explores the artist’s
common humanity by tracing how the individual imagination uses myths
and symbols common to different cultures and epochs.”
 The myth critics study the so-called archetypes or archetypal patterns.
They wish to reveal about the people’s mind and character. Myth is the
symbolic projection of the people’s hopes, values, fears, and aspirations.
Mythological criticism is concerned with the motives that underlie human
behaviour.
10. STRUCTURALISM/ STRUCTURALIST CRITICISM

 focuses on literature as a system of signs where meaning is

constructed in a context, where words are inscribed with
meaning by being compared to other words and structures.
 aims to analyze isolated events or meanings in terms of their
underlying structural laws
 seeks to comprehend “particulars” by describing their
interrelationship within the totality of general codes that
govern them
10. STRUCTURALISM/ STRUCTURALIST CRITICISM
looks for the deep and other hidden structures beneath the surface
manifestations of meaning
an attempt to unify the human sciences by applying a single
methodology derived from Ferdinand de Sausure model of
linguistics.
Psychologist Carl Jung, who postulated that humankind has a "collective unconscious,"
a kind of universal psyche, which is manifested in dreams and myths and which harbors
themes and images that we all inherit. Literature, therefore, imitates not the world but
rather the "total dream of humankind." Jung called mythology "the textbook of the
archetypes" (qtd. in Walker 17).

Mythological/Archetypal Criticism
Since its conception in the later 19th century, it has been dealing
with issues on how women are being oppressed in the different
social realms.

Feminism
Involves examining the formal elements of a cultural production in
order to arrive at its meaning. If we are dealing with a short story,
then we examine the setting, characters, plot, theme and point of
view in order to create meaning out of it.

Formalism
ARTICLE CRITIQUE
 Steps involved in writing an article critique:
1. Read the article for the first time to understand its main ideas. If you are unsure
whether you understand it clearly, reread it.
2. Once you feel you understand what the article is talking about, read the article again
and make notes as you go. If you find any interesting sentences or paragraphs that you
think should be discussed; you should quote them as evidence to support your discussion.
3. From your notes, analyze and discuss each important point. You can give your comments
and opinions at this stage.
4. Summarize and provide a conclusion regarding whether you like or dislike the article.
Support your ideas with the evidence you found.
 WRITE A BALANCE CRITIQUE OF THE ARTICLE

I. Introduction (3 points)
II. Summary of the article (3 points)
III. Analysis and Evaluation (5 points)
IV. Response (4 points)
V. Conclusion (4 points)
VI. References (1 point)
 GUIDELINES

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 REFERENCES
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36MiLt_Wcro
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-juLLH8HMM
 http://hhh.gavilan.edu/kwarren/LitCrit.html
 http://home.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/spring97/litcrit.html
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skEn61J6c8s
WRITE A BALANCE CRITIQUE OF THE ARTICLE
A. Introduction (3 points)
 Author’s name
Article title and source
Author’s thesis statement
B. Summary of the article (3 points)
C. Body: Review/Critique
a. How would you characterize the article?
( practical, philosophical, a review, description of a program, or
curriculum, educational)
b. Describe the central idea or concept of the article
WRITE A BALANCE REVIEW/CRITIQUE
c. Describes any supporting concepts.
d. Define the author’s purpose in writing the article.
e. Discuss the author’s perspective and any other perspective mentioned.
f. Provide key ideas defined in the article.
g. Tell what the author does to get the major points.
h. Did the author cite theories, models or approaches?
i. Did the author present strengths and weaknesses?
j. Did the author provide recommendations and/or criticism?
WRITE A BALANCE REVIEW/CRITIQUE
2. Conclusions
a. Was the article fluent and easy to read?
b. Why was the information important or not important to you?
c. Can the information be used in a practical way?
d. Do you agree with the major points and premise?
e. What is one idea that impressed you?
f. Is there anything that you are concerned about the article?
g. Is there anything that you would be interested in pursuing further?
- Gender
- Originally an offshoot of feminist movements, gender criticism today includes a
number of approaches, including the so-called “masculinist” approach recently
advocated by poet Robert Bly. The bulk of gender criticism, however, is feminist and
takes as a central precept that the patriarchal attitudes that have dominated western
thought have resulted, consciously or unconsciously, in literature “full of unexamined
‘male-produced’ assumptions.” Feminist criticism attempts to correct this imbalance
by analyzing and combatting such attitudes—by questioning, for example, why none
of the characters in Shakespeare’s play Othello ever challenge the right of a husband
to murder a wife accused of adultery. Other goals of feminist critics include
“analyzing how sexual identity influences the reader of a text” and “examin[ing] how
the images of men and women in imaginative literature reflect or reject the social
forces that have historically kept the sexes from achieving total equality.”
 Mythology tends to be speculative and philosophical; its affinities are with religion, anthropology, and cultural
history.
- Psychological Criticism Then , the critic might wonder about the psychology
of the author who created that character and how the story impacts the minds
of women who read it.
his approach reflects the effect that modern psychology has had upon both literature and literary criticism.
Fundamental figures in psychological criticism include Sigmund Freud, whose “psychoanalytic theories
changed our notions of human behavior by exploring new or controversial areas like wish-fulfillment,
sexuality, the unconscious, and repression” as well as expanding our understanding of how “language and
symbols operate by demonstrating their ability to reflect unconscious fears or desires”; and Carl Jung, whose
theories about the unconscious are also a key foundation of Mythological Criticism. Psychological
criticism has a number of approaches, but in general, it usually employs one (or more) of three
approaches:An investigation of “the creative process of the artist: what is the nature of literary genius and
how does it relate to normal mental functions?”
The psychological study of a particular artist, usually noting how an author’s biographical circumstances
affect or influence their motivations and/or behavior.
The analysis of fictional characters using the language and methods of psychology.
ANALYSIS/EVALUATION
To critique the article, answer the following questions:
 What are the credentials/areas of expertise of the author?
 Did the author use appropriate methods to gather evidence?
 Was the evidence used by the author accurate?
 Does the author’s use and interpretation of this evidence lead the reader
to the same conclusion?
 Did the author build a logical argument?
 Is there other evidence that would support a counter-argument
(opposing view)?
 ANALYSIS/EVALUATION
 Are the article and evidence still valid or are they outdated, leading to an
invalid conclusion?
 Was the author successful in making his/her point?
 Are there special features about the text which interest or disturb you, such
as unusual information or new ways of looking at an issue?