Length: 2.5-3.5 pages
Topic: Choosing a journal or magazine article which 1) presents an argument and 2) interests you, write a full critique of the piece selected. This article must speak to the issue or problem you have chosen to pursue.
Keep in mind that a critique is not necessarily negative criticism of a piece, but a careful response and analysis of it. Not all critiques are negative, but for simplicity sake, I'd like you to respond to a piece of analysis that you disagree with.
Purpose: Your goal in writing this critique is to convey to your reader your overall assessment of the relative success or failure of the article of in question. This assessment will form the core of your thesis statement and should be presented somewhere in the introduction. Make sure your discussions of the language and argument of the article connect in obvious and meaningful ways to your overall evaluation/thesis statement.
Audience: Write to an intelligent adult who either has just skimmed the article or who has only a vague understanding of this issue. You want to give your audience a clear idea of the value of the article.
"Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
— F. Scott Fitzgerald
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."
— F. Scott Fitzgerald