Philosophy 101          Inroduction to Philosophy     Group Writing Projects       Argument strategies                (critique)

   Although the critique strategy does not follow any specific argument form, it does have a common structure. One can write a critique of a novel, an essay, an argument, or a poem. In each case, the way the critique is written depends in part on what is being critiqued. You wouldn't want to write a critique of a poem exactly the same way you would write a critique of an essay or a novel. Nevertheless, critiques share a similar structure or format (let's assume we're writing a critique of a particular essay).

A critique has five functions:

1. to help the reader understand the essay (the opposing view) by summarizing it fairly. Summarizing means presenting the main argument of the opposing essay ( the conclusion and the main reasons that support the conclusion ) and stating the author's purpose,
2. to explore the parts of the opposing essay's argument in greater detail and
3. evaluate the parts of the opposing essay's argument in greater detail (you could take each of the main reasons given in the essay and evaluate it in terms of whether it really supports the conclusion or not),
4. to draw back from the details and make an overall estimation of the opposing essay as a whole.
5. to present your own argument for your claim that is in oppositon to the essay you have just evaluated.