
The Critical
Essayâ what do you Critique?
The critical
essay spans a gamut of topics and subjects, but can be categorized into three basic types: (1)
evaluative essay, (2) the descriptive
essay, and (3) the interpretive
essay. Though the categories may vary, the thought process involved in writing these
essays is essentially similar: understand and know the subject thoroughly, form an opinion about it, evaluate your opinion as well as that presented by the writer, understand the basic elements of the text, and create a focus. These
essay types can cover a wide range of subjects that test the writerâ?™s ability to present an objective analysis.
The type of
essay you write would depend on the assignment or your comfort with the category. If you prefer to discuss a textâ?™s significance, meaning, and theme, you could opt for the interpretive critical paper. A discussion of specific aspects of the text such as its tone, language, or symbolism, is more suitable for the descriptive type. If you want to weigh a textâ?™s quality, its presentation, its worthiness, readability, and other such
evaluative aspects, you could opt for the
evaluative type of critique. The style and content would depend not only on the type of critical
essay you write, but also on the subject manner.