WRITING A CRITIQUE

What is a critique?
■ Is a genre of academic writing that briefly summarizes and
critically evaluates a work or a concept.
■ Uses a formal, academic writing style and has clear
structure
■ The Body of critique includes summary of the work and a
detailed evaluation
■ The purpose of evaluation is to gauge the usefulness or
impact of 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 an argument, structure of
evidence or creative style
 A recognition of the strengths and weaknesses
How to write a critique?
■ Study the work under discussion
■ Make notes on the 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
Seven (7) Principles of Effective Critique
that CRITICS should adhere:
■ Objective – limit your critique to be observed behavior of the writer
and do not criticize her/his personality, general psychological traits,or
physical characteristics.
■ Specific – a student/writer sometimes cannot understand an error
and correct it if the critic is not specific enough
■ Constructive – try to give support writer’s true strengths in your
criticisms
■ Comprehensive – critique should be balanced and include both good
and bad points
■ Acceptable – critique must be perceived as a legitimate authority
before the critique can be accepted by the writer.
■ Flexible – a critique should be able to shape his critique depending on the audience,
context, etc.
■ Organized – a good critique takes the writer by the hand and leads her through as
few steps as possible to the desired goal of the instruction or the critique session.

Variety ways to structure a Critique:

A. INTRODUCTION
 Must be short, less than 10% of the word length
B. SUMMARY
 Summarizes the main points and objectively describes how the creator portrays
C. CRITICAL EVALUATION
 Should give systematic and detailed assessment of the different elements of the
work
 The evaluation is written in formal academic style
and logically presented
 For shorter critiques, you may discuss the strength
of the works, and then the weaknesses
 In longer critiques, you may wish to discuss the
positive and negative of each key critical question in
individual paragraphs.
Key critical questions that could help your
assessment:
■ Who is the creator? Is the work presented objectively
or subjectively?
■ What are the aims of the work? Were the aims
achieved?
■ What techniques, styles, media were used in the
work? Are they effective in portraying the purpose?
■ What assumptions underlie the work? Do they effect
its validity?
D.CONCLUSION
 A statement indicating the overall evaluation of the work
■ A summary of the key reasons, identified during the critical
the critical evaluation, why this evaluation was formed; and
■ Recommendations for improvement on the work may be
appropriate
E.REFERENCE LIST
 Includes all resources cited in your critiques
Checklists for critique
■ Have you:
 Mentioned the name of the work, the date of its creation and the
name of the creator?
 Accurately summarized the work being critiqued?
 Mainly focused on the critical evaluation of the work?
 Formed an overall evaluation of the work?
 Systematically outlined an evaluation of each element of the work to
achieve the overall purpose?
Critiquing various fields
■ Critiquing WORKS OF DESIGN
Graphic designers communicate a specific body of information to a specific group of
people to achieve a specific result.
It is to change an attitude in order to change the behavior of the target audience
A. Purpose
B. Critique criteria
C. Areas to consider
 Communication
How well the idea concept is conveyed?
How to critique for a case analysis?
■ A case analysis provides a review and interpretation of the study results to draw
conclusions and solutions that can be applied in broader basis.
A. Case details overview
-must first delineate the details of the case study for readability and clarity.
B. Unbiased interpretation of analysis
-avoid making personal, judgmental or emotive statements in paragraphs
presenting the findings
C. Thesis rational
-the thesis statement for a critique must address the fundamental issues being
raised or questions being asked about the case analysis.
D. Point and Counterpoint
-support for the opinions presented in the thesis statement are provided by
counterpoints that addresses the points made in the case analysis
E. Validation or Dissesion
-it should avoid presenting new information from other sources
CRITIQUING NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
-learning to critique news outlets, the stories they cover and the articles they
produce is a valuable step on the path to media literacy
A. INSTRUCTION
 Summarize the article
 Discuss what works and what doesn’t
 Analyze the articles slant and focus
 Research the articles accuracy