“Criticism” means the art of making detracting assessment. A critical essay is an inquiry of a document or composition such as a book, article, film or painting. This type of essay suggests interpretation and evaluation. Since it offers analysis of some other’s writing so it generally takes the form of a dispute. It is actually an argument piece of writing. The critical essay allows your knowledge to develop. It requires a detailed analysis of a topic. The word “critical” has both positive and negative significance. It portrays your attitude when you read the article.
Critical writing should disclose your understanding of the problem. The arguments are very essential for critical writing so all your arguments of the essay should be supported by relevant and realistic evidences. Whether you agree or disagree with the contention of the author, but still you have to give the best possible arguments either to support or oppose the assertion of the author.

Features of a Critical essay

• Critical writing should be precise and logical in delivering your information.
• It should be informative. It should stress on the literary work being studied and not on the emotions and feelings of the person writing the literary work.
• Critical writing involves denying the actual writer’s opinion. It means to think critically, analyzing and explaining your evidences.
• Do not judge the author’s writings rather explain how the author’s conclusion can be accepted under certain circumstances.
• The explanation should be well organized and each part should support the main line of argument.
• Always use, serious and objective tone in critical writing.
• Remember that your argument, evidence and conclusion are defined.

A Critical essay is a review or critique of another work. Writing a critical essay involves both critical reading and critical writing. A good critique should ask the following questions to him about the material he is reading in order to think critically. If you think critically, you can write critically.

• Who is the author of the book?
• What is the nature of the work?
• What is the intention of the book?
• What is the author’s point of view?
• What is the author trying to conclude?
• What is the main message of the book?
• What is the organizational plan of the author’s writing? Does it achieve the objectives?
• What evidences are used to back up the main message?
• Are the evidences persuasive? Do they affect the gravity of the work?
• Is the author’s technique thorough?
• What evidences the author missed in his writing?
• Is the author’s conclusion accurate?
• Do I agree with his work? What is the reason of agreeing or disagreeing his work?
• What rhetorical strategies are used by the author? Are they impressive?

Sample outline for Critical essay

After analyzing the author’s writing carefully, the essay can be formulated using this outline.
I. Background information to help readers understand the type of the work.
A. Information about the work
1. Title
2. Author
3. Publication date
4. Declaration of topic and intention
B. Thesis statement revealing writer’s main opinion of the work
II. Summary or explanation of the work
III. Analysis and/or interpretation
A. Intention and discussion of the work
B. Judging the arrangement of the work
C. Potency of the work
D. Judging how the author behaves towards the topic
E. Judging the claim of the work to the reader

Tips for writing a Critical essay

1. First of all, decide your main line of argument that will run constantly through your essay. This should be your very own argument and not summarizing someone’s argument.
2. You have to collect a lot of proofs to back up your argument, but be selective in choosing. Too many evidences make it troublesome for the readers to understand so make sure that your evidences are the most convincing ones.
3. Critical writing involves a lot of critical reading. Read the author’s work critically. This includes the evaluation of the facts presented by the author.
4. Once your analysis is over, check your arguments and evidences, and consider both the strengths and weakness. Make your evidence stronger for the principal line of reasoning and also give the opposing views with evidence that you have found against it. Balance the weakness with strong evidence.
5. Make a clear conclusion to create a strong impact on your readers. The writing should lead to your conclusion but do not simply re-tell the narrative. It is better if you write your conclusion before accumulating the proofs because knowing your conclusion will produce a rational piece of work.
6. Proofread your writings for any logical or grammatical mistakes. Review your work by critically thinking.