Critical Analysis

How to Write a Critical Analysis

The Purpose of Writing Critical Papers

Literary criticism, analysis of literature or critical analysis of an article in literature is a process of evaluating a literary work. The scope of critical dissection may include one aspect of the text or the whole work. In the latter case, it is customary to separate the text into constituents and evaluate the ability of the aggregate of such elements to achieve the goal. Usually, the analysis of literature is done by students, specialists and literary critics, but anyone can carry out a critical analysis of the work.

The purpose of writing a critical analysis essay is to evaluate work in such genres as literature, painting or cinematography. The critical survey is a way of expressing criticism of your opinion or evaluating the text. It is also a way to divide a piece into pieces and study them. The best option to conduct a critical analysis is to start it with an evaluative reading.

Read the material thoroughly and carefully. When you finish reading, think about the issues that have risen in analysis paper. It is very important to make notes and describe what you think about certain nuances, where you do not agree with something, etc. These notes will help you write a review. Also, notes can be useful in formulating abstracts for the newspaper.

Choose one of the ideas that is left in your mind. Sometimes you are looking for ideas that you agree, those you disagree, those that cause you discomfort or even those you agree with, but they need deeper thinking. Have these ideas in mind; they will help you to write an analysis.

What is a critical analysis?

Critical analysis is the process of determining how true and credible you consider the information. For example, when someone tries to persuade you to vote for a specific candidate for a government position or to support the legalization, you should listen to it critically and determine how much you agree with the interviewee and how you want to respond.

If you can not critically pay attention to what has been said, you risk inadvertently accepting certain ideas or plans, which may not correspond to your values, interfere with the achievement of your goals, or mislead others (including your interlocutor) about your judgments. So we can give the next definition to it: critical analysis is the process of determining the veracity, reliability or likelihood of the information provided.

Critical thinking analysis requires you to assess the quality of conclusions. Inferences are judgments or statements based on the study of facts, but not necessarily true. Listeners evaluate inferences in the context in which they appear. Usually, the inference is part of the argument; that is when the interlocutor makes a statement (conclusion), and then gives other arguments in support of the statement.

Critical analysis outline

To define the concept of critical analysis most easily, we want to tell you some information about its outline. Make a plan. Always use a plan that will help you logically organize your thoughts in order to give an analysis of credibility. In the plan indicate your thesis, the content of the main paragraphs, as well as quotes and examples with page numbers. After that, it will be much easier for you to write an essay with an analysis of the text. You can also use the outline to make key suggestions such as an intriguing beginning (the first sentence of the first paragraph), topics and transitions for each paragraph, and a conclusion.

Critical analysis essay example

The key rule of formulating the connection between the conclusion and the evidence for assessing its relevance is the question to yourself: “On what basis does this conclusion come from these facts?” For example, Hal says: “I saw frost in a meadow – I think our flowers wilted.” What can we say to establish a connection between the fact “frost in the meadow” and the statement “our flowers wilted”? If I were Hal, I would think something like this: “The presence of frost indicates that the temperature is low enough to freeze the dew on the grass. If it’s low enough to freeze the dew, it’s low enough to kill my flowers”. This convinces since we can demonstrate the connection between hoarfrost and the death of defenseless flowers.

Let’s take a look at the other example. Gina says: “I was preparing all night and got only “satisfactory” for the first test, and I’ll not get a better result.” This statement implies that Gina sees the connection between the preparation time before the test and the assessment. We can formulate the implied logic as: “Since the preparation time before the test, which determines the evaluation can not be longer, Gina can not improve her judgment.”

In this case, logicality seems controversial. Her train of thought suggests that the only factor determining the evaluation is the amount of time to prepare for the test. Experience shows that many other factors, such as the time of the previous training and the way of thinking, are equally (if not more) important.

The best tips for writing an analysis

1. Critically read the work. If it is necessary to read a work for analysis (it can be a poem, a story, scientific literature or memoirs), it is important to involve a living mind. Ask questions. Take the pen, paper, and dictionary. Write down the basic ideas in the margins and check unfamiliar words in the dictionary. Ask questions “how to do,” “why” and “what” in order to critically comprehend the text.
2. Analyze the text. In addition to important ideas in the fields, you also need to write out key ideas and topics in a notebook along with page numbers. It is important to evaluate the work from the standpoint of critical thinking (clarity, accuracy, and relevance of the text). In the process of reading, evaluate such elements of the paper as the plot, themes, examples of character development, places of action, symbols, conflicts and points of view. Think about how such elements interact with each other and become the main theme.
3. Think about the aspect that your analysis will focus on. Before formulating a thesis (in fact, in order to formulate a thesis), you should choose one aspect of the work that you want to consider. Review your entries and select interesting ideas that you can add to the list and review. You can choose a topic that is relevant specifically for you, to assess how successful the author coped with it. Use the items from your notes. The way of organizing ideas: make a list; make up a web of ideas; use the technique of free writing.
4. Formulate the thesis. Make a list of ideas and select a critical point of view based on your observations or pointed theory, and then do a working thesis. “Worker” means one that can later be changed in accordance with the text of the work. The thesis should express a controversial opinion, which will be proved by convincing facts.
5. Choose quotes and examples to support your thesis. In the process of creating the plan, start writing direct quotes and examples from the source and other materials (secondary sources). Use the thematic suggestions in each main paragraph to support each idea with a relevant quote.
6. Collect all the materials, formulate your thesis and make a detailed plan, then continue writing. At this stage, all the collected information is already correctly organized, so the work on the text should not cause any special difficulties. If the plan is created in a text editor, it can simply be supplemented with new information. Use the plan as a guiding thread. Check it while working on the text to view all the points and selected examples.
7. Consider requirements and stylistic norms. Be sure to follow the requirements of your teacher or supervisor. For example, you need to answer specific questions. Sometimes there are requirements on the size of the pages or the number of words, stylistic norms and recommendations.
8. Reread the text. When the text is ready, it should be re-read to make changes and find errors. It is impossible to pass or publish a draft version of the final analysis. The work can be read aloud or shown to another person to find typos, bulky phrases, and weak cause-effect relationships.
9. Analysis of the title will help to determine the main theme of the work, and the topic itself will become a framework, on top of which the remaining elements of analysis will be located. If you understand what theme the structural elements of the text indicate, it will be easier for you to assess how successfully the author coped with the task.

Now you know how to avoid mistakes and write a critical analysis.http://blog.writers-corp.net/2019/08/01/paraphrase-for-students/