Critical Analysis Essay - Final Draft
- Due No Due Date
- Points 170
- Submitting a file upload
Essay # 1: Critical Analysis Essay
Length, 3 pages, 170 points
Overview of Critical Thinking
Critical thinking involves the way we analyze, evaluate and assess the information presented to us in written, verbal, and non-verbal forms. Ultimately, well-practiced, logical critical thinking gives us a clear lens through which we see the world. In contrast, unclear critical thinking leaves an impure, spotty lens that makes it hard for us to see the true nature of the world around us.
That being said, for this assignment, you will be given some practice in this all-important skill which, not incidentally, will serve as the foundation for much of the work you do in this course as well as most of the other work you will do in college.
Assignment Details
For this short essay assignment, you will be asked to identify, present, and analyze an argument or arguments a writer or speaker is making in a text. It should be noted that a “text” for this class can refer to a printed text, like an editorial, or a spoken or multimodal text, such as a speech or video.
Does the argument, for example, seem logical, convincing, or compelling to you? Do you agree or disagree with the writer or speaker’s main points?
Explaining in what ways you do or do not, will comprise the bulk of the work for this essay.
Choices
There will be a variety of texts in the Unit 1 module to choose from. If you feel strongly about writing about an alternate text, however, please discuss it with me or send me an email.
Points of Criticism
Try not to overthink this first assignment too much. Maybe you can imagine that you are having a conversation with one of these writers or speakers about their arguments and how you would respond to them. If there is more than one argument or point given, you could agree with some but not others. Just present the writers’ or speakers’ arguments clearly and then analyze how effective you think they are.
Essay Length and Structure
You should use this basic academic structure in your essay:
1. An introduction which should…
- Name the text, author, year (if known) and source of article or speech (the specific journal, website, for example, where it was published, produced)
- Provide some background on the topic that will engage the reader (we will discuss approaches for this in class)
- Provide a brief summary of the text you will be analyzing
- Finally, a thesis statement that indicates in what ways you agree or disagree with the author’s main point or argument, as in this example:
"Overall, Rick Reilly’s argument that watching football is no
longer enjoyable because of the well-publicized pain and suffering of the NFL’s players is not convincing."
2. Several body paragraphs that should…
-
- Identify and assess the effectiveness of the evidence, examples, and strategies the author employs to try to convince his/her audience of his or her point (s).
And be organized in this way…
- Begin with a topic sentence that clearly presents a type of evidence, example, or strategy the writer uses
- Provide quotes and/or paraphrases from the text of the evidence, examples, and strategies (in other words, provide quotes from the article you are analyzing)
- Analyze how the quotes / examples you provide help the writer convince you (or not convince you) of his/her argument
- This organization described above is referred to as PIE structure. We will discuss this in class and examples will be
- A conclusion which should…
- First summarize the main points of your essay
- Second, it should leave the reader with a new thought or idea letting them know why the topics of your essay are important to you, to the world today, etc.
Essay Length and Format
3 pages, double-spaced in font size 12, Times New Roman preferred. A rough and final draft will need to be submitted.