ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES

HANDOUT #3: APPROACHES IN LITERARY CRITICISM

LESSON 1: OBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT

In this lesson, you will try to form opinions based on facts, cite specific sources to support
claims and present ideas convincingly. All these are very important so that you can have
an objective assessment.

You have listed some opinions. Opinions are your own views of certain issues or
concerns. There are words that you can use when expressing your opinion. Here are
some phrases that you can use:
I think… From my point of view I believe… From my perspective
I feel… In my view In my opinion… It seems to me that
I would say…

These are examples of ways to express your opinion:

✓ I think technology is harmful.
✓ In my view, technology is not useful and helpful.
✓ In my opinion, technology is very important nowadays.

You may also just state your opinions without using those phrases. You can just say,
Technology is harmful but only when you are in an informal situation.

If you are in a formal setting, it would be appropriate to use those phrases.

You are entitled to your own opinions, but these opinions must be based on facts so that
you will not be biased.

It is very important that you will not be focused only on giving opinions. You must also
look for information that will help support your opinion because -
• this will add to the credibility and validity of your opinion; and
• more will believe you if what you express is strongly supported with
information that are true and correct.

A very important expository discourse that you must learn how to write is the reaction
paper, review, or critique. It is mainly written to communicate a fair assessment of
situations, people, events, literary and artistic works and performances. Whether
a social commentary, or a critical judgment, it conveys incisive insights into its analysis
of events, its interpretation of the meaning or importance of a work or artifact, or its
appreciation of the moral or aesthetic values reflected in the work or performance. It may
include the main purpose of the event; the devices and strategies employed; an evaluation
of its success or failure; and an assessment of its significance and relevance, timeliness
or timelessness. (English for Academic Purposes Teacher’s Guide, DepEd, 2016)

Express ideas.

Source Facts that support your Explanation why the facts

opinion support the opinions

Now that you have listed your opinions and gathered facts to support your opinions,
you can start presenting your ideas to convince others to agree with you. How can you do
this? Follow these steps:
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1. Write your opinions in complete sentences.
2. Add the facts and your explanation to support your opinions.
3. Write your opinions and facts in an organized way by starting with your main point.
Arrange your facts according to degree of importance.
4. Summarize the ideas towards the end of what you are writing. 5. Review what you wrote
to check if you did not miss anything.

Printed Source:
Author
Year
Title
Volume number (if magazine or encyclopedia)
Page numbers
Publication
Publisher
Example:
Laurel, M., Lucero, A., Bumatay-Cruz, R.(2016) English for Academic and Professional
Purposes Teacher’s Guide. Pasig City: DepEd-BLR.

Online Source:
Author or Editor
Year
Month
Date
Name of web page
Name of website
URL
Example:
Source Facts that support your Explanation why the
opinion facts support the
opinions
https://www.export.gov/article? According to export.gov, 5.8 This fact supports
id=Philippines Information percent annual growth rate is my opinion because
and Communications slower than originally it shows statistical
Technology expected and this is because data. This shows
the Philippine consumer is that consumers
more inclined to invest on a invest more on
smartphone first as opposed smartphone than PC
to a PC. (mention your source
or whoever said it)

LESSON 2: APPROACHES IN LITERARY CRITICISM

2|E A P P - H A N D O U T 3 Prepared by: Mrs. Rose Jane B. Aves

Say Something
Take a look at this dialogue.

Process Questions:
1. Was the response of the student appropriate? Why?
2. What kind of language should the student use?
3. What are the things to consider when you want to express your thoughts?

When you express your views, it is also important to use appropriate language for a
specific discipline.
For example, if you are to convince people who are experts in the field of Science and
Mathematics, you need to use their language. Here are examples of terms that you can
use in the following disciplines.

You should be formal and use technical terms that are familiar to them. However,
if your audience is the general public, you also need to use the language they know. Avoid
jargons or technical words and slang or invented words. You can be informal when
necessary. However, you must never forget to be POLITE to avoid having future problems.

CRITICAL APPROACHES IN WRITING A CRITIQUE

Critique is a formal analysis and evaluation of a text, production or performance.
It is a careful analysis of an argument to determine what is said, how well the points are
made what issues are overlooked, what implications are drawn from such observation and
what assumptions underlie the argument.
Like an essay, a critique uses a formal academic writing style and has a clear
structure, that is, an introduction, body and conclusion. However, the body of a
critique includes a summary of the work and detailed evaluation. The purpose of an
evaluation is to gauge the usefulness or impact of work in a particular field.

CRITICAL APPROACHES
1. Formalist Criticism - This approach regards literature as “a unique form of human
knowledge that needs to be examined on its own terms.”
2. Gender Criticism - This approach “examines how sexual identity influences the
creation and reception of literary works.”
3. Historical Criticism - This approach “seeks to understand a literary work by
investigating the social, cultural, and intellectual context that produced it—a
context that necessarily includes the artist’s biography and milieu.”
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 4. Reader-Response Criticism - This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that
“literature” exists not as an artifact upon a printed page but as a transaction
between the physical text and the mind of a reader.
5. Media Criticism - It is the act of closely examining and judging the media. When
we examine the media and various media stories, we often find instances of media
bias. Media bias is the perception that the media is reporting the news in a partial
or prejudiced manner.
6. Marxist Criticism - It focuses on the economic and political elements of art, often
emphasizing the ideological content of literature.
7. Structuralism - It focused on how human behavior is determined by social, cultural
and psychological structures.

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