Media & University of Hawaii West O’ahu Essay Example for Free

Media University of Hawaii West O’ahu Essay A critique is not only a personal response, it is considered as a formalized, critical assessment of a text or other media (University of Hawaii West O’ahu, n. d. ). Writing a systematic evaluation of a writing sample is painstaking and it goes beyond saying that the text is satisfactory, out of the ordinary, or unacceptable. The Hunter College Reading Writing Center (n. d. ) listed the steps required to critique a piece of writing which includes describing the writer’s objective, analyzing how the sections of the writings were joined together, interpreting the importance of every section and assessing the value of the work. In writing a critique, it is important to consider the following elements – content, organization, style and correctness (Birk, 2000) as this determines if the essay, article or any literary work is informative, authentic, interesting, appropriate for the target reader, has a clear purpose, sufficient in scope, and free from grammatical error. In the content, one determines the suitability of the theme and how it was developed by the writer. The following questions can also serve as a guide, â€Å"Is the topic appropriate and interesting? †, â€Å"Is the writing intended for a specific reader? †, â€Å"Does it offer sufficient examples, evidence and anecdotes to substantiate the author’s view or argument? † In the organization, the objective of the essay, location of the topic sentence, flow of ideas and the transition of the paragraphs are usually examined (Colorado State University, 2009). For the overall style, it is necessary to look into the appropriateness of the tone, writer’s creativity, sentence structure and the length of each sentence as this contribute to the overall clarity of the essay. Correctness refers to adherence to the rules of grammar, punctuation, and the form of the essay. Writing samples must be completely free from grammatical errors. It is not enough to consider the elements in critiquing a writing sample. It is useful to follow the guidelines and include an introduction, a summary of the author’s main point, evaluation of the author’s success in achieving his or her purpose, response to the author’s view, and a conclusion where strengths and weaknesses of the text are assessed (Birk, 2009). References Birk, B. M. (2000). Essay critique guidelines. Retrieved March 11, 2009 from http://www. goshen. edu/english/critique. html Colorado State University (2009). Organization of an essay. Retrieved March 11, 2009 from http://writing. colostate. edu/guides/processes/peerreview/organization. cfm Hunter College Reading Writing Center (n. d. ). Writing the critique. Retrieved March 11, 2009 from http://rwc. hunter. cuny. edu/reading-writing/on-line/critique. html University of Hawaii West O’ahu (n. d. ). Writing a critique. Retrieved March 11, 2009 from http://homepages. uhwo. hawaii. edu/~writing/critique. htm