what is a critical essay? a critical essay is a critique or review of another work, usually one which is arts related i.e. However, the critical essay is more than just a summary of the contents of the other work or your opinion of its value. The critical essay is an objective analysis of the work, examining both its positive and negative aspects. The critical essay is informative and stresses the work rather than your opinion. Following the general essay format of title, introduction, body, and conclusion is helpful in writing the critical essay.

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formatting your critical essay title: an essay is an examination of a single topic. Because critical essays must back each point with solid evidence, it's much easier to focus on a single aspect of a work rather than an entire work. For instance, rather than trying to examine the movie star wars , examine the use of dialogue in star wars.

Narrow it further to a topic like how yoda's odd dialogue contributes to the movie or how the voice of james earl jones adds to the character of darth vader. Introduction: the introduction of a critical essay introduces the topic, including the name of the work that you're analyzing and the author or artist of the work. It also states your position on the work and briefly outlines the questions that led you to develop the arguments you'll detail in the body of your essay. Tip: use relevant background or historical information to show the importance of the work and the reason for your evaluation. Body: the body of a critical essay contains information that supports your position on the topic. Develop your arguments through using facts that explain your position, compare it to the opinions of experts, and evaluate the work.

Use both the views of experts that are contrary to your viewpoint as well as those in agreement with your position. Use your evidence to show why your conclusion is stronger than opposing views, examining the strength of others' reasoning and the quality of their conclusions in contrast to yours. Find supporting evidence within the work itself, in other critical discussions of the work, and through external sources such as a biography of the author or artist.

tips: using paragraphs for each point you analyze and including transitions from point to point improves the flow of your essay. As well as from paragraph to paragraph, check to see that the entire essay is well organized and that the information within each paragraph is well ordered. Conclusion: the conclusion of your critical essay restates your position and summarizes how your evidence supports your point of view. final touches for the critical essay the critical essay is an informative review based on authoritative and expert evidence.

Completing the essay with the appropriate final touches adds an authoritative look to your composition.

since much of the information in a critical essay is based on the opinions and viewpoints of others, it is crucial to properly cite your sources within the body of the essay and include a list of sources at the end of the paper. Mechanical errors spelling, grammar, punctuation erase your credibility as an expert on your topic. although finding the supporting evidence for a critical essay takes some effort, because you support your position with facts the critical essay results in making you look like an expert on your topic. Overall, it may be easier to write than a first person essay! the word critical has positive as well as negative meanings. This attitude is best described as detached evaluation, meaning that you weigh the coherence of the reading, the completeness of its data, and so on, before you accept or reject it. A critical essay or review begins with an analysis or exposition of the reading, article by article, book by book.

A summary of the author's point of view, including a brief statement of the author's main idea i.e. Thesis or theme an outline of the important facts and lines of reasoning the author used to support the main idea a summary of the author's explicit or implied values a presentation of the author's conclusion or suggestions for action 2. Now you can start to write the first draft of your expository essay/literature review. Outline the conflicting arguments, if any this will be part of the body of your expository essay/literature review.

Ask yourself, are there other possible positions on this matter? if so, briefly outline them. Decide on your own position it may agree with one of the competing arguments and state explicitly the reason s why you hold that position by outlining the consistent facts and showing the relative insignificance of contrary facts. Coherently state your position by integrating your evaluations of the works you read. Briefly state your position, state why the problem you are working on is important, and indicate the important questions that need to be answered this is your introduction. Push quickly through this draft don't worry about spelling, don't search for exactly the right word, don't hassle yourself with grammar, don't worry overmuch about sequence that's why this is called a rough draft.

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Once they are there, you can deal with the superficial though very important problems. Consider this while writing: the critical essay is informative it emphasizes the literary work being studied rather than the feelings and opinions of the person writing about the literary work in this kind of writing, all claims made about the work need to be backed up with evidence. The difference between feelings and facts is simple it does not matter what you believe about a book or play or poem what matters is what you can prove about it, drawing upon evidence found in the text itself, in biographies of the author, in critical discussions of the literary work, etc. Criticism does not mean you have to attack the work or the author it simply means you are thinking critically about it, exploring it and discussing your findings. Sometimes, depending on your audience, it is all right to use a lighter or even humorous tone, but this is not usually the case.

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Be specific about the points you are making about the novel, play, poem, or essay you are discussing and back up those points with evidence that your audience will find credible and appropriate. If you want to say, the war of the worlds is a novel about how men and women react in the face of annihilation, and most of them do not behave in a particularly courageous or noble manner, say it, and then find evidence that supports your claim. If you want to argue, isolation drives frankenstein's creature to become evil, back it up with events and speeches from the novel itself.

Another form of evidence you can rely on is criticism, what other writers have claimed about the work of literature you are examining. You may treat these critics as expert witnesses, whose ideas provide support for claims you are making about the book. In most cases, you should not simply provide a summary of what critics have said about the literary work. In fact, one starting point might be to look at what a critic has said about one book or poem or story and then a ask if the same thing is true of another book or poem or story and 2 ask what it means that it is or is not true. And beware of subjects that are too broad focus your discussion on a particular aspect of a work rather than trying to say everything that could possibly be said about it.

Each section should logically follow and lead into the sections that come before it and after it. If you quote or summarize and you will probably have to do this be sure you follow an appropriate format mla format is the most common one when examining literature and be sure you provide a properly formatted list of works cited at the end of your essay. Here are the examples of popular critical essay topics: the politics of obama the educational system of us my favorite movie home scholl the match point by woody allen shakespeare the merchant of venice enjoy essaylib and get custom written critical essays. A critical analysis essay involves reading a text critically and stating your evaluation, or opinion, of what the author was meaning.