How To Write A Critique
How To Write A Critique
How To Write A Critique
It's essential to develop critical reading and analysis skills while you're at
university to demonstrate higher-level thinking.
Rather than just accepting and summarising what you read, you should aim
to:
Reading critically
Writing critically
As a critical reader, you need to be able to develop your own ideas about
what you read. Don't just accept that everything you read is completely
accurate or the only way of discussing an idea.
Here are some ways you can improve your critical reading skills:
Approach reading with a list of questions you can use to evaluate the
information.
Critical reading questions: Find more example questions for critical reading on
the Learning Co-Op website.
1
Look for links
To help identify gaps and bias in a text, identify information that is presented
with little or no explanation or evidence. Look out for:
generalisations
assumptions
2
opinions (even from experts)
selective inclusion of evidence that only supports a particular point of
view
words that may indicate the author is overstating or making unjustified
assumptions (e.g. plainly, obviously, undeniably, naturally, as you will
agree, there is no doubt, it has to be admitted, clearly).
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Critical writing depends on critical reading. Most of the papers you write will involve
reflection on written texts – the thinking and research that has already been done on your
subject. In order to write your own analysis of this subject, you will need to do careful
critical reading of sources and to use them critically to make your own argument. The
judgments and interpretations you make of the texts you read are the first steps towards
formulating your own approach.
When you are reading, highlighting, or taking notes, avoid extracting and compiling lists
of evidence, lists of facts and examples. Avoid approaching a text by asking “What
information can I get out of it?” Rather ask “How does this text work? How is it argued?
How is the evidence (the facts, examples, etc.) used and interpreted? How does the text
reach its conclusions?
3
methodology laid out? If there is an appeal to a particular concept, theory, or
method, how is that concept, theory, or method then used to organize and interpret
the data? You might also examine how the text is organized: how has the author
analyzed (broken down) the material? Be aware that different disciplines (i.e.
history, sociology, philosophy, biology) will have different ways of arguing.
4. Examine the evidence (the supporting facts, examples, etc) the text employs.
Supporting evidence is indispensable to an argument. Having worked through Steps
1-3, you are now in a position to grasp how the evidence is used to develop the
argument and its controlling claims and concepts. Steps 1-3 allow you to see
evidence in its context. Consider the kinds of evidence that are used. What counts
as evidence in this argument? Is the evidence statistical? literary? historical? etc.
From what sources is the evidence taken? Are these sources primary or
secondary?
5. Critical reading may involve evaluation. Your reading of a text is already critical if it
accounts for and makes a series of judgments about how a text is argued. However,
some essays may also require you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an
argument. If the argument is strong, why? Could it be better or differently
supported? Are there gaps, leaps, or inconsistencies in the argument? Is the
method of analysis problematic? Could the evidence be interpreted differently? Are
the conclusions warranted by the evidence presented? What are the unargued
assumptions? Are they problematic? What might an opposing argument be?