How to Write a Good Critique

1. Base your essay on the articles in the Taking Sides book.
1. Read each side at least once. Highlight or make notes of what points are important.
2. Make a list of ideas you might want to use. Include the page numbers for each item. Include strong and weak points from both sides.
3. Review your list and decide which side you will argue for. Write one sentence that describes what you want to prove. This can become your thesis statement.
2. Organize your thoughts before you start writing.
1. Go through the list you made in step 1b above. Put a check mark next to all the ideas you still want to use. These will be the ideas that you use to back up your thesis statement.
2. Rearrange and group these together to form an outline of your essay.
3. The essay should include an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
1. The introduction can consist of a single paragraph. Start by briefly summarizing the question (issue). Describe the question and tell a little about each side. End the introductory paragraph with a thesis statement: a sentence that says what you are going to prove. At least in the first critique, take a stand. The introduction is a guide to what you are going to say in the body of the essay. Based on the introduction, your reader should have a pretty good idea of what will be in the rest of the essay.
2. The body includes the things that support your position and arguments against the things that don’t. Say why your side is right and the other is wrong. Use the list of ideas that you made in 2b above. Group similar ideas together.
3. The conclusion summarizes your point (a quick wrap-up stating how you proved your point). Don’t introduce anything new.
4. I often write the body of an essay before I write the introduction. But, if you do, be sure that the body still fits with the introduction that you write.
4. Use sentences and paragraphs.
1. A sentence has a subject (noun) and a predicate (verb). If a phrase does not have both, it’s not a sentence. Use the Tutoring and Academic Success Centers (in either library) if you need a review of grammar and syntax. There’s a good guide at http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar.
2. A paragraph usually focuses on a single idea. Generally you should be able to say what a paragraph is about using one sentence. TASC and the online guide can also help with paragraphs.
3. Feel free to ask me about sentence structure, usage, and paragraphs.
5. Use the ideas you pulled from the articles to construct your argument.
1. Use direct quotations. Handling quotations can be difficult, but used properly they will add great strength to your essay.
1. When you are quoting less than 40 words, surround the quoted words with double quotation marks (" "). If there is a quotation within what you are quoting, use single quotation marks around them. Directly after the quotation, give the source of the words—author’s name, year, and page number—in parentheses. This is called a parenthetical citation. For example:

The Consumer Reports respondents were not mentally ill. Rather, "we can assume that a good-sized fraction were ‘subclinical’ in their problems" (Seligman, 2000, p. 41).

2. If you are quoting more than 40 words, don’t surround the quote with quotation marks. Instead, start the quotation on a new line and indent the quoted material five spaces from the left margin. Include the citation material in parentheses directly after the quotation. Note: I don’t think you will be using many long quotations in these essays.
3. If you include the name and or year in the words leading up to the quotation, you don’t have to include them in parentheses afterwards. For example:

Seligman allowed readers to "assume that a good-sized fraction [of respondents] were ‘subclinical’ in their problems" (2000, p. 41).

4. If you change a word or two in a quotation, show the change in square brackets. If you leave words out, use three dots. For example:

Seligman "[assumed] that a good-sized fraction…would not meet…[the] criteria for any disorder" (2000, p. 41).

5. The parenthetical citation steers readers to an entry in a list of works cited at the end of the essay. Formatting the reference list can be difficult. For the first critique, you can use the attached reference list word for word.
6. There is more information on formatting and citations using APA style at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html.
2. You can also paraphrase the articles—that is, put the ideas in your own words. You are still using ideas that you did not come up with on your own, so give credit to the source.
3. Taking the words or ideas of someone else and presenting them as your own is plagiarism, a form of stealing that can get you into trouble.
4. Don't quote or paraphrase from the editorial summaries at the beginning of the issues.
6. Keep your own opinions out of the essay or at least well hidden. Instead, let your reasoning shine through.
1. Avoid statements such as "I feel…," "I believe…," or "I think…." You are trying to prove a point based on reason, not feeling or belief. You probably will not need to use the pronoun "I" at all in these essays. Your reader will assume that what you have written is what you think, so there is no need to say "I think that Seligman was right when he said…." Rather, explain why Seligman is right (or wrong).
2. Back up every assertion with reasons.
3. Particularly on the first critique, stay close to the topic.
4. Don’t merely summarize what each side said. You are trying to prove a point.
7. Polish up your essay before handing it in.
1. Be sure to double-space.
2. Include a title, and try to make it informative. "Issue 3" is not informative. "Bad methodology ruined the Consumer Reports study" is informative.
3. Keep a serious tone throughout the essay. Avoid slang and chattiness.
4. Use a dictionary to check the spelling, meaning, and usage of words.
5. Every sentence should fit within the topic of the paragraph that contains it. Every paragraph should work to prove your thesis statement.
6. The essay should be one to four pages long not including the title page or references.

References

Note: See http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html for information on how to format other references.

Anthony G Benoit  abenoit@trcc.commnet.edu
(860) 885-2386

Revised