Critiques Purpose and Audience
Content and Format
  Writing Process
Citing Course Material
Purpose & Audience

A critique is written to fulfill a course assignment. Instructors generally assign critiques for one or more of the following reasons: To make sure students complete couse readings, to make sure the students understand the course material, to get their students to read and think critically, to integrate course readings and classroom discussions.

Therefore, your critique may need to do one or more of the following:

  • demonstrate that you have completed couse readings
  • demonstrate that you understand the course material
  • demonstrate that you are able to read and think critically
  • demonstrate that you are able to integrate course readings and classroom discussions

To produce a successful critique, you need to determine what the instructor expects. Look back on your class notes to determine the goals, values, and expectations of your instructor. These expectations may be either explicit or implicit, so you should also study your assignment very carefully.

From material prepared by:
Jennie Skerl and Maureen Murphy
The Writing Center
4508 Sage Laboratory
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute