Sunday, August 9, 2020

How to Write a Critical Analysis

How to Write a Critical Analysis There are different types of essays that you might be asked by your teacher to write such as critical analysis essays, reflection papers, research papers, among many others. In this article, we focus on how to write a critical analysis. Have you ever written a critical analysis? Do you know what such a paper involves? Perhaps you have not written such a paper before and you are wondering where to start. The first step that you need to take to help you come up with a flawless critical analysis paper is to understand what writing such a paper involves. Definition of critical analysis Have you ever been asked by your instructor to write a critical analysis essay and you are left asking yourself what such a paper entails? A critical analysis essay refers to an essay that you write to examine or review a given piece of work such as an article or a book. In most of the cases, your instructor might require you to write a critical analysis of a given article, traditional works, paintings, book, or even a film. Ideally, a critical analysis paper emphasizes on how effective a given piece of art is with respect to a few aspects. In this article, we provide you with information on what a critical analysis essay is as well as how to write a critical analysis. Critical reading Just like any other essay, for you to write a high-quality critical analysis you need to gather the right information on the given subject. Unlike most other essays, critical analysis involves reviewing a given piece of art such as a film, an article, or a book. The implication is that you need to be familiar with the book, article, or film that you are reviewing. For this reason, carrying out a thorough research and reading the assigned material or any other external sources will help you writing a critical analysis that meets the expectations of your instructor. Use the school library and any other online database to find the appropriate material for your critical analysis. In case you are not aware where to get the right material, it is always important to seek clarification from either the school librarian or your instructor. Such an approach saves you from wasting a lot of time. What is the author’s thesis? In a case where your critical analysis is about an article or a book, you need to be familiar with the themes and ideas that the author is presenting to the readers. First, start by establishing the author’s thesis statement. This is a sentence or two that highlights the author’s argument and helps you to determine what the reading material involves. You need to understand that it is easier to identify the thesis statement in an academic essay than in the case of a painting, movie, or any other creative work. Here are a few questions to get you started: What is the author’s main reason behind the particular argument in the essay? Does the author provide any solution to various problems that they have raised? In a case where the author offers a solution, how realistic is it? Has the author included any relevant and sufficient supporting information? How valid are the arguments and conclusions presented by the author? Establish the author’s main arguments Any piece of writing has the primary ideas that form the base for argument. Take your time to note all the main ideas in any given work that you are about to review. In the case of a book or an article, scrutinize the topic sentences in each section or paragraph within the text for a chance to identify the main ideas. However, whenever reviewing works of fiction or even paintings, identifying the main ideas presented in the work requires some expertise, since you need to establish the evidence behind any assigned work as far as the author’s explanation regarding the identified thesis is concerned. Writing the Actual Critical Analysis Divide you critical analysis into a number of sections including the introduction, body and the conclusions. To ensure that you address all the important aspects of your paper, you need to develop a strong outline for critical analysis of your assigned piece of work. You should address each of the following sections separately and deeply. Introduction The introduction section of your essay should contain the hook of the essay as well as the thesis statement. What are you reviewing? Is it a book, an article, film, or a painting? Your target audience needs to know this right from the start. If it is a book, an article, film, or a painting ensure that your hook or the thesis statement contains the author of the article or the book, painter, or film writer in the case of a painting or a film respectively. Note that, your introduction should contain a summary section and an evaluation of the work that you are analyzing. When summarizing the piece of work, ensure that you tell your readers title of the book or article, date of publication and author and then state your main ideas from the work. You can either use the exact author’s thesis or paraphrase it. After you have summarized the piece of work, you need also to evaluate it based on the issues the author presents; the arguments and support your evaluation with ideas from the specific work and if possible, outside. In this section, you can come up with your own thesis to create a suitable approach to your critical analysis. Body Use the outline for your critical analysis that you created during the preparation phase. In this section, you need to answer all the possible critical analysis questions since your readers will seek various answers from your arguments. For this reason, you need to put yourself in the place of the readers and try to come up with questions that you would possibly ask while reading critical analysis paper. This approach will help you to address all the important elements and main ideas regarding the work that you are reviewing. Divide the body of your paper into a number of paragraphs preferably, three. While writing a critical analysis might follow a different approach other than the one for a normal research paper essay, the organization of your paragraph matters a lot. What is a critical analysis essay? This should be the guiding question; it is an essay whereby you review another author’s work and argue out his or her main ideas objectively. Thus, focus to analyze various components of the provided work by looking at the author’s major arguments and evidence to establish whether or not they are valid. Give your essay a nice flow by starting each paragraph with a topic sentence that inclines on the main point that you are analyzing. Next, use supporting ideas from the work or any other source to back up your evaluation, and ensure that all the information that you include is correctly cited and referenced. All the claims that you make in your paper should be analytical implying that you use information from the book or article that you are addressing to support any arguments that you have regarding particular components of the work. For this reason, you need to be objective as opposed to being subjective in your response. Arrange your paragraphs according to the weight of the arguments in each paragraph. Such an approach makes it easy for your reads to follow your analysis. In most of the cases, it is advisable to start with the most significant point as you move towards the conclusion of your analysis. However, make sure that you address all the important elements and sub-topics that you developed when creating the outline for your essay. Conclusion The conclusion section of your critical analysis is as important as the introduction and the body. In most of the cases, many writers tend to disregard the importance of having conclusions in their essays. It is important to note that the conclusions part of your analysis is highly important for it not only offers a summary of the main ideas but also gives the readers a course of action. Here are a few life hacks to ensure that your conclusion is as strong as possible and that it serves its purpose: Thesis restatement; Restate your thesis statement as well as that of the author of the work that you are reviewing. This will remind your readers of the scope and focus of your analysis. Summarize main ideas; Next, provide a comprehensive summary of the main claims that you have made in the body of the essay, and which align with the main arguments in the work. Avoid new ideas; Ensure that you do not present new ideas or claims in the conclusion; stick to what you have addressed in the body of your essay. Call to action; what next after reading the analysis? The conclusion section of your essay needs to answer this question by calling the readers to act. You can achieve this by highlighting the future implications of your analysis with respect to the given audience.

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