English for

Academic and
Professional
Purposes
Quarter 1 – Module 2
Reaction Paper and Concept
Paper
These are the competencies covered in the lessons:
 Uses appropriate critical writing a critique such as formalism, feminism, etc.
(CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-Id-f-16)
 Writes an objective/balanced review or critique of a work of art, an event or a program
(CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-Id-f-18)
 Determines the ways a writer can elucidate on a concept by definition, explication and
clarification (CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-Ig-j-20)
 Compare and contrast various kinds of concept papers: Home Economics; Agri. Fishery;
I.A; ICT (CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-Ig-j-23)
 Presents a novel concept or project with accompanying visuals/ graphic aids
(CS_EN11/12A-EAPP-Ig-j-24)

Lesson 1
 CRITICAL APPROACHES IN WRITING A
CRITIQUE
Learning Objectives: At the end of the lesson, the learners shall be able to
1. define critique;
2. identify the various approaches writing a critique;
3. criticize the texts using the different approaches of criticism; and
4. apply the appropriate critical approaches in writing your critique.

What is critique?

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.
It is a genre of academic writing that briefly summarizes and critically evaluates a
work or concept.

Critiques can be used to carefully analyze a variety of works such as:

 Creative works – novels, exhibits, film, images, poetry
 Research – monographs, journal articles, systematic reviews, theories
 Media – news reports, feature articles

Like an essay, a critique uses a formal, academic writing style and has a clear structure,
that is, an introduction, body and conclusion. However, 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?

Writing a critique on a work 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.

How to write a critique

 Before you start writing, it is important to have a thorough understanding of the work
that will be critiqued.
 Study the work under discussion.
 Make notes on key parts of the work.
 Develop an understanding of the main argument or purpose being expressed in the
work.
 Consider how the work relates to a broader issue or context.

The following are the different approaches in writing a critique:

1. Formalist: This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human

knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms.” All the elements
necessary for understanding the work are contained within the work itself. Of
particular interest to the formalist critic are the elements of form—style, structure,
tone, imagery, etc.—that are found within the text. A primary goal for formalist
critics is to determine how such elements work together with the text’s content to
shape its effects upon readers.

Questions to be Asked for Formalistic Approach

A. How is the work’s structure unified?
B. How do various elements of the work reinforce its meaning?
C. What recurring patterns (repeated or related words, images, etc.) can you find?
D. What is the effect of these patterns or motifs?
E. How does repetition reinforce the theme(s)?
F. How does the writer’s diction reveal or reflect the work’s meaning?
G. What is the effect of the plot, and what parts specifically produce that effect?
H. What figures of speech are used? (metaphors, similes, etc.)
I. Note the writer’s use of paradox, irony, symbol, plot, characterization, and style of
narration.
J. What effects are produced? Do any of these relate to one another or to the theme?
K. Is there a relationship between the beginning and the end of the story?
L. What tone and mood are created at various parts of the work?
M. How does the author create tone and mood? What relationship is there between tone and
mood and the effect of the story?
N. How do the various elements interact to create a unified whole?

2. Gender Criticism: This approach “examines how sexual identity influences the
creation and reception of literary works.” 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.”
3. 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 “examining
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.”

Feminist Criticism examines images of women and concepts of the feminine in myth and
literature; uses the psychological, archetypal, and sociological approaches; often focuses on
female characters who have been neglected in previous criticism. Feminist critics attempt to
correct or supplement what they regard as a predominantly male-dominated critical
perspective.

Questions to be asked for Feministic Approach

A. How are women’s lives portrayed in the work?
B. Is the form and content of the work influenced by the writer’s gender?
C. How do male and female characters relate to one another? Are these relationships
sources of conflict? Are these conflicts resolved?
D. Does the work challenge or affirm traditional views of women?
E. How do the images of women in the story reflect patriarchal social forces that have
impeded women’s efforts to achieve full equality with men?
F. What marital expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these
expectations have?
G. What behavioral expectations are imposed on the characters? What effect do these
expectations have?
H. If a female character were male, how would the story be different (and vice versa)?
I. How does the marital status of a character affect her decisions or happiness?

4. Historical: This approach “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.” A key goal for historical
critics is to understand the effect of a literary work upon its original readers.

Questions to be Asked for Formalistic Approach

A. How does it reflect the time in which it was written?
B. How accurately does the story depict the time in which it is set?
C. What literary or historical influences helped to shape the form and content of the work?
D. How does the story reflect the attitudes and beliefs of the time in which it was written or
set? (Consider beliefs and attitudes related to race, religion, politics, gender, society,
philosophy, etc.)
E. What other literary works may have influenced the writer?
F. What historical events or movements might have influenced this writer?
G. How would characters and events in this story have been viewed by the writer’s
contemporaries?
H. Does the story reveal or contradict the prevailing values of the time in which it was
written? Does it provide an opposing view of the period’s prevailing values?
I. How important is it the historical context (the work’s and the reader’s) to interpreting the
work?

5. Reader-Response Criticism: This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that

“literature” exists not as an artifact upon a printed page but as a transaction between
the physical text and the mind of a reader. It attempts “to describe what happens in
the reader’s mind while interpreting a text” and reflects that reading, like writing, is a
creative process.

6. Structuralism focused on how human behavior is determined by social, cultural

and psychological structures. It tended to offer a single unified approach to human
life that would embrace all disciplines. The essence of structuralism is the belief that
“things cannot be understood in isolation, they have to be seen in the context of
larger structures which contain them. For example, the structuralist analysis of
Donne’s poem, Good Morrow, demands more focus on the relevant genre, the
concept of courtly love, rather than on the close reading of the formal elements of the
text.

7. Sociological focuses on man’s relationship to others in society, politics, religion,

and business.

Questions to be asked for Sociological Approach

A. What is the relationship between the characters and their society?
B. Does the story address societal issues, such as race, gender, and class?
C. How do social forces shape the power relationships between groups or classes of people
in the story? Who has the power, and who doesn’t? Why?
D. How does the story reflect the Great American Dream?
E. How does the story reflect urban, rural, or suburban values?
F. What does the work say about economic or social power? Who has it and who doesn’t?
Any Marxist leanings evident?
G. Does the story address issues of economic exploitation? What role does money play?
H. How do economic conditions determine the direction of the characters’ lives?
I. Does the work challenge or affirm the social order it depicts?
J. Can the protagonist’s struggle be seen as symbolic of a larger class struggle?
K. How does the microcosm (small world) of the story reflect the macrocosm (large world) of
the society in which it was composed?
L. Do any of the characters correspond to types of government, such as a dictatorship,
democracy, communism, socialism, fascism, etc.? What attitudes toward these political
structures/systems are expressed in the work?

POST ASSESSMENT: Read the following items carefully. Write only the letter
corresponding the best answer on a separate sheet of paper.
1. Which of the following refers to the visually expressive or metaphorical language used in a
literary work?
a. imagery c. feminism
b. formalism d. reader-response
2. Which of the following refers to the collective manifestations of human intellectual
achievement?
a. culture c. formalism
b. feminism d. gender equality
3. Which of the following refers to the state in which access to privileges or chances are
accepted by gender?
a. b. feminism c. gender equity
b. formalism d. gender equality
4. Which of the following aspects is considered in formalism?
a. relationship of the form and the content
b. how gender issues are presented in literary works and other aspects of
human production and daily life
c. interaction between the reader and the text in creating meaning
d. conflict and interactions between economic classes
5. What is observed in a reader-response approach.
a. How culture determines gender
b. Social class as presented in the work
c. The use of imagery to develop the symbols in the work
d. communication between the reader and the text in making meaning
6. Which of the following does a literary critic evaluate?
a. nutritional status
b. academic books and articles
c. pre-test and post-test for research
d. educational status of a particular group
7. Which of the following types of criticism focuses on how literature presents women as
subjects of socio-cultural, psychological, and economic oppression?
a. feminist
b. formalist
c. Marxist
d. reader-response
8. Which of the following claims that literary works contain intrinsic properties and treats
each work as a distinct work of art?
a. feminism
b. Formalism
c. Marxism
d. reader-response
9. Which of the following approaches claims that the reader’s role cannot be separated from
the understanding of the work?
a. feminist
b. formalist
c. Marxist
d. Reader- response
10. Which of the following is concerned with differences between economic classes and
implications of a capitalist system?
a. feminism
b. formalism
c. Marxism
 d. Reader-response
11. Which of the following aspects is viewed into by feminism?
a. Social class of the writer
b. How gender equality is presented in the text
c. contribution of parts and the work as a whole to its aesthetic quality
d. impact of the reader’s delivery of sounds and visuals on enhancing
and changing meaning
12. Which of the following is considered under Marxist Criticism?
a. social class of the characters
b. interconnectedness of various parts of the work
c. patriarchal ideology is an overpowering presence
d. collaboration both of the reader and the text in producing meaning
13. Which of the following refers to the manifestation of dissatisfaction of someone or
something based on perceived faults or mistakes?
a. criticism
b. critique
c. feminism
d. formalism
14. Which of the following refers to a detailed examination and assessment of a literary
work?
a. criticism
b. critique
c. feminism
d. formalism
15. Which term refers to an excessive observance to agreed forms?
a. criticism
b. critique
c. feminism
d. formalism

PERFOMANCE TASK
Read and analyze the poem “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou, then write a
Feminist critique.