ENG

• Reaction paper


  A specialized form of writing in which a reviewer or reader evaluates
• Review


  A specialized form of writing in which a reviewer or reader evaluates articles, academic books, or a work of art
• Critique


  A specialized form of writing in which a reviewer or reader evaluates a play, performance art, dance, or a work of art
• Reaction Papers, Reviews, and Critiques


  • Usually range in length from 200 – 750 words
  • Critical assessments, analyses, or evaluations of different works
• Critique


  • An advanced form of writing that requires critical thinking skills and recognizing arguments
  • Should not be connected to cynicism and pessimism
• Cynicism


  The belief that people only do things to help themselves, rather than for good or sincere reasons
• Pessimism


  A feeling that bad things will happen and that something will not be successful
• Reviewers


  • Do not rely on mere opinions; rather, they use both proof and logical reasoning to substantiate their comments
• Reaction Papers, Reviews, and Critiques


  • Process ideas and theories, revisit and extend ideas in a specific field of study, and present an analytical response to a scholarly, literary, or artistic art work
• Formalist Criticism or Formalism


  Claims that literary works contain intrinsic properties and treats each work as a distinct work of art. It posts that the key to understanding a text is through the text itself.
• Formalist Criticism


  • Focuses on the author's techniques in resolving contradictions within the work
  • Looks at the central passage that sums up the entirety of the work
  • Examines the contribution of parts and the work as a whole to its aesthetic quality
  • Considers the contribution of rhyme and rhythm to the meaning or effect of the work
  • Explores the relationship of the form and the content
  • Analyzes the use of imagery to develop the symbols used in the work
  • Looks at the interconnectedness of various parts of the work
  • Examines paradox, ambiguity, and irony in the work
  • Considers unity in the work
• Feminist Criticism or Feminism


  Focuses on how literature presents women as subjects of socio-political, psychological, and economic oppression. It also reveals how aspects of our culture are patriarchal (i.e. how our culture views men as superior and women as inferior).
• Feminist Criticism


  • Examines how culture determines gender
  • Looks at how gender equality (or the lack of it) is presented in the text
  • Explores how gender issues are presented in literary works and other aspects of human production and daily life
  • Investigates how women are socially, politically, psychologically, and economically oppressed by patriarchy
  • Analyzes how patriarchal ideology is an overpowering presence
• Reader Response Criticism


  Concerned with the reviewer's reaction as an audience of a work. Claims that the reader's role cannot be separated from the understanding of the work; a text does not have meaning until the reader reads it and interprets it. Readers are not passive and distant, but are active consumers of material presented to them.
• Reader Response Criticism


  • Examines the interaction between the reader and the text in creating meaning
  • Considers the impact of readers' delivery of sounds and visuals on enhancing and changing meaning
• Marxist Criticism


  Concerned with differences between economic classes and implications of a capitalist system, such as the continuing conflicts between the working class and the elite. It attempts to reveal that the ultimate source of people's experience is the socioeconomic system.
• Marxist Criticism


  • Looks at social class as represented in the work
  • Examines the social class of the writer/ creator
  • Investigates the social class of the characters
  • Analyzes the conflicts and interactions between economic classes
• Deconstructionist Criticism


  Subject texts to careful, formal analysis; however, they reach an opposite conclusion: there is no meaning in language. They believe that a piece of writing does not have one meaning and the meaning itself is dependent on the reader.
• Psychological Criticism


  Attempts to explain the behavioral underpinnings of the characters within the selection, analyzing the actions and thoughts committed.
• Historical Criticism


  Relies heavily on the author and his world. It is important to understand the author and his world in order to understand his intent and to make sense of his work.
• Inter-textual Criticism


  Concerned with comparing the work in question to other literature, to get a broader picture.
• Mimetic Criticism


  Seeks to see how well a work accords with the real world. How does a piece of literature accurately portrays the truth is the main contention of this literary approach.
• Archetypal Criticism (Mythological and Symbolic Criticisms)


  Assumes that there is a collection of symbols, images, characters, and motifs (i.e. archetypes) that evokes basically the same response in all people which seem to bind all people regardless of culture and race worldwide.
• Structure of a Critique of Scholarly Books and Articles


  • Title of the book/ article/ work
  • Writer's name
  • Thesis statement (in the Introduction, around 5% of the paper)
  • Objective or purpose
  • Method used (if applicable)
  • Major findings, claims, ideas, or messages (in the Summary, around 10% of the paper)
  • Appropriateness of methodology to support the arguments (for books and articles) or appropriateness of mode of presentation (other works)
  • Theoretical soundness and coherence of ideas
  • Sufficiency and soundness of explanation in relation to other available information and experts
  • Other perspectives in explaining the concepts and ideas (in the Review/Critique, around 75% of the paper)
  • Does the writer explicitly state his or her thesis statement?
  • What are the assumptions mentioned in the work? Are they explicitly discussed?
  • What are the contributions of the work to the field where it belongs?
• Sufficiency and soundness of explanation


  • In relation to other available information and experts
• Other perspectives


  • In explaining the concepts and ideas
• Thesis statement


  Explicitly stated by the writer
• Assumptions


  A scientific/logical/literary explanation without evidence, explicitly discussed
• Contributions


  Of the work to the field where it belongs
• Problems and issues


  Discussed or presented in the work
• Information


  Observation, survey, statistics, historical accounts, used to support arguments or thesis
• Alternative ways of supporting arguments or thesis

  Author's silence about these
• Overall impression of the work
• Scholarly or literary value of the reviewed article, book, or work
• Benefits


  For the intended audience or field
• Suggestion


  For future direction of research
• Basic details


  Title, director or artist, name of exhibition/event
• Main assessment


  Of the material (for films and performance)
• Plot summary/description


  Gist of the plot, simple description of the artwork
• Analysis/interpretation


  Discussion and analysis of the work