What are Critical Essays

The word "critical" has positive as well as negative meanings. You can write a critical essay that agrees entirely with the reading. A critical essay or review begins with an analysis or exposition of the reading, article-by-article, book by book.

While composing your article, the analysis should include a summary of the author's point of view, including a brief statement of the author's main idea, 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 and a presentation of the author's conclusion or suggestions for action.

After the analysis of the authors work, you have to also start evaluating of the author's work thoroughly. This would include an assessment of the "facts" presented on the basis of correctness, relevance, and whether or not pertinent facts were omitted; an evaluation or judgment of the logical consistency of the author's argument; an appraisal of the author's values in terms of how you feel or by an accepted standard.

As you are writing your analysis, you have to also decide on your own position (it may agree with one of the competing arguments). As there must be reasons for you critic the author’s works, then you have to state explicitly your analysis 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.

The composition of the article 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.

Giving constructive opinions 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. In many cases, you are teaching your audience something new about the text.
The literary essay usually employs a serious and objective tone. (Sometimes, depending on your audience, it is all right to use a lighter or even humorous tone, but this is not usually the case).

While writing the essay, you must 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. It is also crucial to be sure your discussion is well organized. Each section should support the main idea. Each section should logically follow and lead into the sections that come before it and after it. Within each paragraph, sentences should be logically connected to one another.

Remember while you are writing your critical essay that in most cases you want to keep your tone serious and objective. If you quote or summarize (and you will probably have to do this) in your critical essay, 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.

Sharon White is a senior writer and writers consultant at essay tips. Get some useful tips for critical essay and critical analysis essay.