English 102

Tips and Reminders for Writing the Critique Paper

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Writing about Evidence

Your essay will be performing two related tasks when dealing with the evidence. First it will analyze the evidence, and then it will evaluate it.

Analysis involves, first of all, identifying some of the most important pieces of evidence the author cites.

1. Decide which pieces of evidence are more important and which are less important. “Important” means:
1. most necessary for proving the author’s point, and
2. most typical of the kind of evidence the author uses throughout the article (to give the reader a sense of the article as a whole through the use of a few representative examples).
2. Describe two or three of the most important pieces of evidence, and show how they are part of a pattern. That is, explain that these examples of the author’s evidence are typical of the kind of evidence used throughout.

The analysis should also briefly explain how the evidence helps to prove the point being supported.

The evaluation of the evidence should use the tools from our class discussions and from “Critically Analyzing Information Sources.” Is the evidence sufficient, relevant and representative? Why or why not?

Remember the difference between evidence (facts that support a claim) and citation (a statement about where the facts are from). Remember that general interest sources do not require citations.

Writing about Reasoning

You have the same two related tasks when dealing with the reasoning: first analyze it, and then evaluate it.

The analysis of the reasoning should identify some of the key assumptions.

1. Decide which assumptions are the most important. “Important” means:
1. most necessary for proving the author’s point, and
2. most typical of the kind of assumption the author makes throughout the article (to give the reader a sense of the article as a whole through the use of a few representative examples).
2. Describe two or three of the most important assumptions.

The analysis should also briefly explain how the assumptions support the point in question.

The evaluation of the reasoning should focus on whether the assumptions are valid or reasonable.

One way to evaluate reasoning is to assume the facts presented are accurate, and then ask, If the facts are correct, is the conclusion valid? If not, there’s a problem with the reasoning.

Organization

There are different ways you might organize your paper. Here are two of the most common:

• Summary, Evidence, Assumptions (SEA)
• Braided (Point 1 SEA, Point 2 SEA, Point 3 SEA, etc.)

Neither is right or wrong, but the second (“braided”) is a bit more challenging to pull off, so if you’re not feeling too confident use SEA. Remember that the thesis focuses on evaluation, so do not over-emphasize summary. And however you organize the paper, it should clearly deal with each element (Summary, Evidence, Assumptions).

You may also wonder about how to organize the sections on evidence and reasoning. Here are two possibilities:

• Do the analysis first and then the evaluation
• Combine analysis and evaluation in a back and forth movement.

Again, the second option may be a bit more challenging.

Here is an example of these two different ways of organizing the section on evidence.