Critical Essay: Be Objective, Do Not Let It Become Slander!

The word combination “critical essay” sounds rather threatening, probably, because of the word “critical”. Still, do not be deluded by its negative meaning, as the task to write a critical essay does not necessarily mean that you should do a demolition job on the book article or film you are analyzing.

In your case, critical essay means analysis and evaluation of the book or some other source. A critical essay can incorporate the analysis of both positive and negative features of the analyzed object.

Your critical essay should always include two main structural parts: summary and analysis. Some tips on each part are given below.

Summary as a part of a critical essay

• Remember that writing a summary can be a separate task, do not reduce your critical essay to mere summary of the analyzed source. This will prove that you have read it but it will not prove that you have formulated your opinion about it.
• When writing a summary in your critical essay, be sure to mention all key ideas, events, and the thesis offered by the author.
• Do not render minor episodes in detail in your critical essay, it is unnecessary and, what is more, your teacher may suspect that you are writing only about those abstracts you have read.

Evaluation as the main part of a critical essay

• In this part, you should comment on all the details you have mentioned in the summary in terms of relevance, reliability, authoritativeness of the information offered in the book or article.
• Be sure to present your own point of view, state if you agree or disagree with the author.
• If he/she omitted some important information or did not throw light on the important issues, mention them in your critical essay.
• Remember that your analysis should be informative; you should support your opinion by facts. Otherwise, your critical essay can become slander.