10 Department of Education-Region III

TARLAC CITY SCHOOLS DIVISION

Juan Luna St., Sto. Cristo, Tarlac City 2300
Email address: tarlac.city@deped.gov.ph/ Tel. No. (045) 470 - 8180

English
Quarter 3: Week 4
Learning Activity Sheets

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 ENGLISH 10

Name of Learner: _______________________________________ Grade Level: 10 Q3 – WEEK 4

Section: _______________________________________________Date: ___________________
Composing an Independent Critique of a Chosen Selection (Part II)
Background Information:
Whether you are drafting a personal essay, writing a post on your social media sites, or simply
discussing your insights on a certain issue or current event in class, being evaluated and receiving
feedback from other people regarding your writing skills should be a regular part of your creative process.
This is why even the most successful authors know that constructive feedback from an editor, a critique
partner, or writers group is equal to perfecting their craft of writing. Therefore, learning about critique and
how to write one is helpful in leading the author to take an objective look at what has been written, to
evaluate its suitability, to tighten the piece where needed, then to let their words stand on their own. Also,
critiquing a piece of work is valuable in honing your own writing skill.
Although, the term critique is mistaken as fault finding and as negative judgement, to critique
does not require you to criticize somebody’s work. To critique and to criticize do not mean the same
thing. A negative critique might be said to be “criticism” in the way we often understand the term “to
criticize,” but critiques can be positive too.
As a critique, you need to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the piece of research or
writing. You will be tasked to evaluate and analyze a wide variety of things (texts, images, performances,
etc.) based on reasons or criteria. Since it is a good exercise in judging the value of a piece of writing or
research, critiquing is a way of improving your own skills by looking at the way other writers and
researchers work. It is a valuable exercise in the careful reading of text that will increase your
understanding of a particular subject.
In the previous learning activity sheet, you have walked through the definition of critique and have
given an opportunity to conduct a guided critique. In this module, you will be composing your own critique
based on a particular selection.

A. Composing a Critique
Before writing a critique, you must remember that a critique is an analysis of a written text based
on evidence, which is extracted from the document itself. It does not rely on your personal opinion alone.
Hansen (2000) said that, in assessing written works, the work itself must be understood. If the
content is misunderstood, then the critique will be misapplied. This is why you should read through the
piece at least twice- first for content, and then, second for analysis.
When analyzing the text, it is important to mark or underline (or add notes) on areas that are of
significance and you think will be substantial in the writing of your critique. Moreover, Hansen asserted
that you should underline key terms and phrases. Also, if there are areas that are unclear or confusing,
those sections should be marked, too. Be sure to ask questions about areas that are not fully understood
as these may be critical to the analysis being conducted. If possible, conduct a research whether through
the internet or the library. Once the text has been read and understood, the text which has been analyzed
can be broken apart, and a critique can be written.
University of Oklahoma (2017) presented set of guidelines you can follow when reading for a
critique and when writing a critique.
Reading for a Critique
1. What is the nature of the piece? Who wrote it? Why was the piece written? Who was
the intended audience? Was it intended to inform, persuade, argue, or entertain?
2. What is the significance of the piece? What relation does it bear to other material on
the same subject or to other material by the same author?
3. What are the objectives of the piece? What kind of material is presented to achieve
those objectives? Are the objectives achieved by the author?
4. What is the structure, design, plan, or method of the piece? Is it well conceived?
5. What is the particular appeal (or lack of appeal) of the piece? What are its most striking
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 qualities? What are its most striking deficiencies?
6. What assumptions or ideas underlie the piece? Are they explained or implied? Are any
of the assumptions or ideas offensive? Are the assumptions and biases obvious, or do
they hide behind a stance of neutrality and objectivity?
7. Do the assumptions and biases affect the validity of the piece? How do the assumptions
of the author compare with my assumptions? Are there flaws in the author’s logic? What
evidence or idea has the author failed to consider? Do I support the author’s position?
Writing the Critique
Introduction
1. Introduce the subject of the critique and identify the author. Give some initial information
indicating the main point to be discussed. Review any background facts or issues that
must be understood before the point of the article being critiqued can be appreciated.
Possibly include additional biographical data.
Summary
2. Briefly summarize the argument or purpose of the author. Be as objective as possible
so that the reader understands what the article said.
Critical Evaluation
3. Analyze the author’s presentation based upon points presented and whether or not the
author succeeded.
4. Respond to the presentation or focus upon the assumptions or purposes the author
makes. State your reaction to, opinion of, and evaluation of these assumptions or
assertions. Clearly support any reactions so that they do not appear to be subjective
judgments. This may be accomplished by adding support from authority, using logic,
observation, or personal
experience.
Conclusion
5. Finally, state your conclusions about the overall piece reviewing the
strengths/weaknesses. Give recommendations, if there is a need for improvement.

B. Language Structures of a Critique

Writing a critique requires enough language strategies to make your evaluation convincing and
effective. Thus, the The Writing Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill presented some
language strategies for critiquing (2021). It is important to state your praise, criticism, and suggestions
politely, but with the appropriate level of strength. The following language structures should help you
achieve this challenging task.
A. Offering Praise and Criticism
A strategy called “hedging” will help you express praise or criticism with varying levels of
strength. It will also help you express varying levels of certainty in your own assertions.
Grammatical structures used for hedging include:
Modal verbs
Using modal verbs (could, can, may, might, etc.) allows you to soften an absolute
statement.
Compare:
1. This text is inappropriate for graduate students who are new to the field.
2. This text may be inappropriate for graduate students who are new to the field.
Qualifying adjectives and adverbs
Using qualifying adjectives and adverbs (possible, likely, possibly, somewhat, etc.)
allows you to introduce a level of probability into your comments.
Compare:
1.Readers will find the theoretical model difficult to understand (no qualifier).
2.Some readers will find the theoretical model difficult to understand.

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 3.Some readers will probably find the theoretical model somewhat difficult to
understand completely.
Note: You can see from the last example that too many qualifiers makes the idea sound
undesirably weak.
Tentative verbs
Using tentative verbs (seems, indicates, suggests, etc.) also allows you to soften an
absolute statement. In academic writing, it is acknowledged that many of the statements or
claims that we present cannot be made with absolutely certainty. We should not make statements
without evidence (research or data) and often we cannot be certain that our statements or ideas
are true in every case. Therefore academic writing requires us to qualify our statements and to
do this we often use tentative or cautious language (University of South Australia, 2017).
Compare:
1.This omission shows that the authors are not aware of the current literature.
2.This omission indicates that the authors are not aware of the current literature.
3.This omission seems to suggest that the authors are not aware of the current
literature.
B. Offering suggestions
Whether you are critiquing a published or unpublished text, you are expected to point
out problems and suggest solutions. If you are critiquing an unpublished manuscript, the author
can use your suggestions to revise. Your suggestions have the potential to become real actions.
If you are critiquing a published text, the author cannot revise, so your suggestions are purely
hypothetical. These two situations require slightly different grammar.
Unpublished manuscripts: “would be X if they did Y”
Reviewers commonly point out weakness by pointing toward improvement. For instance,
if the problem is “unclear methodology,” reviewers may write that “the methodology would be
more clear if …” plus a suggestion. If the author can use the suggestions to revise, the grammar
is “X would be better if the authors did Y” (would be + simple past suggestion).
For example:
The tables would be clearer if the authors highlighted the key results.
The discussion would be more persuasive if the authors accounted for the
discrepancies in the data.
Published manuscripts: “would have been X if they had done Y”
If the authors cannot revise based on your suggestions, use the past unreal conditional
form “X would have been better if the authors had done Y” (would have been + past perfect
suggestion).
For example:
The tables would have been clearer if the authors had highlighted key results.
The discussion would have been more persuasive if the authors had accounted for
discrepancies in the data.
It is important to note that a critique is an academic paper that uses tactful, scholarly and formal
language. Your goal is to help by the author through your tactful, honest and knowledge-based critiques.
Therefore, aside from not putting emphasis on your personal opinion, you must avoid using offensive
language and foul and provocative statements.
Without you knowing, evaluating is part of your daily lives. Everyday, you find yourself evaluating
many things – from what clothes to wear, what music to play or movie to watch. In your mind, you are
doing a critique of your ordinary activities. Writing a critique may simply be a critical process of evaluating
a certain piece of work but this could be an effective way of improving writing skills as well as your
judgment skills.

Learning Competency with code:

Compose an independent critique of a chosen selection.

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Directions/ Instructions
Read carefully the instructions in each exercise; then, provide or perform what is needed or asked in
each item.
Exercises/Activities
A. Study each critiquing statement for a research article below and identify if it is offering a praise,
criticism, or suggestion. Write PR for praise, CM for criticism and SG for suggestion on the space
provided for.
_____ 1. The study does not appear to have a hypothesis since it is only concerned with answering
some questions and has no preconceived notions or ideas of how the study will turn out.
_____ 2. The study has a good introduction, as several relevant studies are presented, and the context
of the study is shown.
_____ 3. The methods and procedures were explained in detail.
_____ 4. The data obtained by the study were reported in a clear manner and analyzed using the
appropriate descriptive and inferential statistics.
_____ 5. Some ideas of further study are presented in the article. Perhaps a good way to improve this
study would be to examine more practical differences between technology and no technology courses
for sight-reading.
B. Recall the process of writing the key parts of a critique and finish critiquing the poem “One
Art” by providing a critical evaluation and conclusion. The introduction and summary have been
done for you.
Introduction
One Art The poem was written by the American poet
By Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop and was first published in 1976 in her
final collection of poetry, Geography III. The poem used
The art of losing isn’t hard to master; a traditional form called villanelle that involves a fixed
so many things seem filled with the intent number of lines and stanzas and a complicated pattern
to be lost that their loss is no disaster. of repetition and rhyme. It is a part-autobiographical
poem and mirrors the actual losses Elizabeth Bishop
experienced during her lifetime.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. Summary of the Piece
The art of losing isn’t hard to master. The author claims that it is easy to be an expert
in losing things since it always happens like losing
Then practice losing farther, losing faster: house keys, time, and a mother's watch, before
places, and names, and where it was you meant climaxing in the loss of houses, land and lastly, a loved
one. The poem deals with loss as an inevitable part of
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
one’s life and the struggle involved in coping with loss
and grief.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or Your Critical Evaluation
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
Your Conclusion
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47536/one-
art

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C. Read critically the essay below. Then, write a five (5) paragraph critique essay about it. The
first paragraph for background information has been done for you. Place your critique on the
space provided for.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Studying an Online Course

In recent years, distance teaching and learning has become increasingly popular among the students
and this is perceived differently by learners. Many students perceive this as a beneficial aid in learning while
others think that they are not as much effective as classroom teaching. This essay will discuss about the merits
and demerits of distant learning.
Studying an online course provides a flexible timing and less budgeted learning for students. They are
able to learn their desire course and subjects on their suitable time. This gives a great opportunity for learners
to gain new skills and strengthen their knowledge level staying in their own place. For instance, a Nepali student
who wants an Australian degree in business management course does not have to stay in Australia, he can
study online and complete course staying at his home. Hence, distant learning is economic and time saving.
However, online courses give more emphasis on the theoretical part of learning and there is less
teacher and student interaction. It lacks the practical aspects of learning and encourage the passive learning.
This is very obvious that students find it as a less effective learning than in the classroom. A recent study
suggests that a greater number of students found classroom teaching far more effective than the distance
learning.
In conclusion, the ever growing availability of online learning has gained its popularity among the young
adults for many years, which is perceived as beneficial by many people while others find it to be less effective.
The emphasis can be given to its effectiveness to establish it as the most cost effective learning than the
classroom teaching.
Source: https://ieltsonlinetests.com/writing-correction/advantages-and-disadvantages-studying-online-course-corrected-
essay

The essay titled Advantages and Disadvantages of Studying an Online Course is a student essay
written by Susa Dhakal in July 2018 and appears on ELTS Online Tests website in response to the topic: In the
last decade, there has been a great increase in the number and variety of online courses available to adults.
This has been welcomed as a great opportunity by many students, however, other students see these courses
as less effective than classroom teaching. It explores the advantages and disadvantages of studying an online
course.
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Rubric:
Criteria Proficient (4-5 points)
Organization Paper is well organized, has
a very clear introduction,
body, and conclusion. The
purpose of the paper is clear
from the very beginning and
the name and author of the
article is made clear early in
the paper.
Summary The article is clearly but
concisely summarized - only
the key points of the article
are touched upon. The article
summary takes up no more
than one third of the total
assignment.
Critique Strengths and weaknesses
that are central to the article
are addressed. The
discussion takes up the
majority of the assignment.
Mechanics There are no grammatical
errors or typos.
Adapted from https://www.rcampus.com/rubricshowc.cfm?code=A22B44&sp=true&
Reflections
What part of the lesson/activity In what activity/activities did you
did you enjoy most? Why? experience difficulties? Why
Fair (2-3 points)
Paper is organized, has an
introduction, body, and
conclusion. The purpose of
the paper becomes clear
within the paper and the
name and author of the
article is mentioned within
the paper.
The article is clearly
summarized, but some sub
points are addressed along
with main points. The
summary is not concise.
Often the summary takes
up more than 1/3 of the
total assignment.
Strengths and weaknesses
that are peripheral to the
article are addressed. The
discussion of strengths and
weaknesses take up the
majority of the assignment
There are few grammatical
errors or typos
In what aspect of your life can
you apply the lesson? Explain.
6
Inadequate (1 point)
Paper is not well organized,
has an unclear or non-
existent introduction, body,
and conclusion. The purpose
of the paper is unclear, and
the name and author of the
article is not stated or stated
late.
The article summary is
unclear or overly detailed.
Often well over half of the
assignment is taken up by
the summary.
Strengths and weaknesses
are addressed peripherally,
weakly, or not at all. The
discussion of strengths and
weaknesses take up only a
small part of the assignment
There are many grammatical
errors and/or typos
Total: ___________
References:
“Advantages and Disadvantages of Studying an Online Course (Corrected Essay),” IELTS Online Tests,
Accessed January 8, 2021,
https://ieltsonlinetests.com/writing-correction/advantages-and-disadvantages-studying-online-
course-corrected-essay.
“Critical Analysis,” Southeastern Louisiana University, Accessed January 8, 2021,
https://www2.southeastern.edu/Academics/Faculty/elejeune/critique.html.
“Critique of a Research Article,” California State University Long Beach, Accessed January 8, 2021,
https://web.csulb.edu/~arezaei/EDP520/critique.htm.
“Journal Article Critique Rubric,” RCampus, 2012, Accessed January 9, 2021,
https://www.rcampus.com/rubricshowc.cfm?code=A22B44&sp=true&.
“One Art,” Poetry Foundation, Accessed January 8, 2021,
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47536/one-art.
“The Importance of Critique for Serious and Successful Writers,” Writer’s Relief, 2008, Accessed January
8, 2021, https://writersrelief.com/2008/03/08/the-importance-of-critique-for-serious-and-
successful-writers/ .
“What’s a Critique and Why Does it Matter?” LibreTexts Libraries, last modified May 18, 2020, Accessed
January 9, 2021,
https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Composition/Advanced_Composition/Book%3A_The_
Process_of_Research_Writing_(Krause)/08%3A_The_Critique_Exercise/8.01%3A_Whats_a_C
ritique_and_Why_Does_it_Matter.
“Writing a Critique,” Northern Arizona University, March 2000, Accessed January 8, 2021,
http://www.prm.nau.edu/prm346-old/writing_critique.htm
“Writing Critiques,” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2021,
https://writingcenter.unc.edu/esl/resources/writing-critiques/.
“Writing a Critique,” University of Oklahoma, 2017, Accessed January 8, 2021,
https://www.ou.edu/writingcenter/guides/specialized_genres/critique.

Answer Key
A.
1. CM
2. PR
3. PR
4. PR
5. SG
B. Answers may vary.
C. Answers may vary.

Prepared by: RIA-FLOR V. VALDOZ

Teacher I

Evaluators: MARIECHRIS M. DAVID

JOEANN M. CASTRO
EUGENE S. YANGO
KAREN LOU A. CEPE
MARIA KRISTINA C. SALUDEZ

Reviewed: CARMELA T. PEREZ, EdD

EPSVR-English

LILY BETH P. MALLARI

EPSVR-LRMS

ROBERT E. OSONGCO, EdD

Chief-CID