ELI 83 - WORKSHOP #5: "WRITING CRITIQUES" (10/8/02)
IMPORTANT POINTS FROM UNIT 6: WRITING CRITIQUES
WHAT IS A CRITIQUE?
● Critique (french) = means "critical assessment."
● Be sure you know the difference between a critique and a summary.
Summary = is "an accurate account of the content of the original article." (pg. 131)
Critique = expresses your evaluative comments of the original article.
● Critiques should be "fair and reasonable" according to expectations of a particular field.
● Critiques can vary, according to your field of study.
You may be asked to critique many sources depending on your field: experiments, book
reviews, art reviews, structures/designs, etc. Also different fields have their own style or
use of critiques. For example, social science writers may focus more on evaluating
methodology, engineers on results, or humanities majors on strength of argument.
● ALWAYS cite the source of your critique—tell the readers what you are critiquing!
● Common form for a critique: Introduce article and author, say something positive, then follow
with negative or evaluative comments, and end with a positive remark about the over article.
EXPRESSING CRITICISM
Use conditionals to say what the author should have done. (pg. 134)
● Conditional phrase: would/should/could/might/may + have + verb-en/ed
● If clause + conditional phrase OR conditional phrase + if clause
Ex: It would have been better if the study had included an additional measure of language
proficiency (ie. TOEFL) to distinguish the "good" from the "poor" language learners.
Use evaluative language to add your opinion of the ideas that you are critiquing. (pg. 136)
Remember to balance your critique between negative and positive comments. It's OK (and
expected) to be negative, but until you have more credentials (higher degree, more publications,
etc.) it's wise to be moderate in your critiques (especially if you want to get published.
Using qualifications (pg. 133)
A qualification is a word or phrase that qualifies the degree or quantity of something. For
example, if I say, "the study is a little ambitious" the phrase "a little" is qualifying how ambitious
I think the study is. It's important to use qualifications to moderate your criticisms, leaving room
for disagreement. This idea of being moderate is also sometimes called "hedging." Here's
another example:
Results from this study may indicate that people who learn a second language are smarter
than those that don't. [Here, the word "may" hedges the results. The effect is that is
sounds less strong and leaves room for disagreement or doubt.]
OTHER TYPES OF CRITIQUES: REACTION PAPERS & BOOK REVIEWS
(pg. 148-153)
These types of critiques allow for a more personal and informal style of writing. If you have to
write one of these types of critiques, it's a good idea to look at a model in your field first.
LANGUAGE FOCUS POINTS
Verb agreement (an exception to the rule, pg. 147)
Normally, the rule for SV agreement in English is: the main verb in a sentence must agree with
the main subject (noun/noun phrase).
BUT, when the subject or first noun in a sentence is a fraction, proportion, or percentage, the
verb agrees with the noun closet to the verb.
Ex:
Half of the students were asked to answer an experimental question.
A total of 7,000 students were required to take the test.
Nearly 19% of the candidates were unable to complete the test.
(Fraction)
(Proportion)
(Percentage)
Scare Quotes (pg. 149)
Scare quotes are used to show the reader that you as the writer question or don't necessarily agree
with the word in quotes. (You're not scaring anyone by using them.)
Ex:
Huang's study identifies "critical" strategies for improving oral proficiency, however, it's
not clear as to what extend these are used by good language learners.
Note: answers to assigned tasks are on blackboard under "Assignments" button.